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An Australian workplace agreement (AWA) was a formalized individual agreement negotiated by the employer and employee. Employers could offer a "take it or leave it" AWA as a condition of employment. They were registered by the employment advocate and did not require a dispute resolution procedure. These agreements such as performance evaluations, operate only at the federal level. AWAs were individual written agreements on terms and conditions of employment between an employer and employee in Australia, under the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996''. An AWA could override employment conditions in state or territory laws except for occupational health and safety, workers’ compensation or training arrangements. An AWA was required to meet only the most minimal Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. Agreements were not required to include effective dispute resolution procedure, and could not include prohibited content. Agreements were for a maximum of five years; approved, promoted and registered by the Workplace Authority; operate to the exclusion of any award; and prohibit industrial action regarding details in the agreement for the life of the agreement. The introduction of the Australian Workplace Agreements was a controversial industrial relations issue in Australia. During a Senate Estimates hearing on 29 May 2006, Peter McIlwain, Head of the Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) detailed that from a sample of 4 per cent, or 250, of the total 6,263 AWAs lodged during April 2006 after WorkChoices was introduced, that: 100% of AWAs removed at least one protected Award condition; 64% of AWAs have removed annual leave loadings; 63% of AWAs have stripped out penalty rates; 52% of AWAs have cut out shift loadings; 40% of AWAs have dropped gazetted public holidays; and 16% of AWAs, have slashed all award conditions and only the Government's five minimum conditions are satisfied.() New AWAs were banned under the (Fair Work Act 2009. ) ==Coverage== AWAs had achieved coverage of about 2.4% of the workforce as of May 2004.〔(Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2004 ): Australian Bureau of Statistics〕 Mining companies have pushed the agreements with some success, offering substantial increases in pay to workers who chose to sign an AWA. According to OEA statistics, as of 31 December 2004, 1,410,900 persons were covered under Union Certified Agreements, 168,500 were covered under non-union Certified Agreements, and Australian Workplace Agreements had risen to 421,800, or over 21%. By 31 December 2005 this had risen to 1,618,200 under Union Certified Agreements, 185,300 under non-union Certified Agreements, and 538,200 Australian Workplace Agreements.〔(Certified agreement and Australian workplace agreement coverage ) from estimates and statistics collated by Office of the Employment Advocate, Accessed 12 June 2006〕 ''Australian Bureau of Statistics'' figures published in March 2005 show that hourly wages of workers on AWAs were two percent lower than the hourly wages of workers on registered collective agreements, mostly negotiated by unions.〔(The impact on Workers of Australian Workplace Agreements ) by Professor David Peetz, June 2005. ABS Statistics show a two percent disparity in wages between AWAs and collective agreements - Page 11.〕 For women, AWAs paid 11% less per hour than collective agreements.〔(The impact on Workers of Australian Workplace Agreements ) by Professor David Peetz, June 2005. Women's earnings 11% less under AWAs on Page 11.〕 "''The most common methods of setting pay for all employees were registered collective agreement (38.3%), unregistered individual arrangement (31.2%) and award only (20.0%). Unregistered collective agreement (2.6%) and registered individual agreement (2.4%) were the least common methods of setting pay. The remaining 5.4% of employees were working proprietors of incorporated businesses.''"〔 In the federal public service the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations reported that as of 31 December 2004, out of 124,500 public and parliamentary service permanent staff there were 11,085 AWAs (covering 1928 Senior Executive Service (SES), where AWAs are compulsory, and 9,157 other employees).〔(DEWR statistics on AWAs in the Federal Public Service ) from ''Union gets ready for hostile Senate'' by Verona Burgess, Australian Financial Review, 8 April 2005, as published in CPSU bulletin April 2005〕 The rest of the permanent staff were covered, as at 30 March 2005, by 101 certified agreements, of which 70 were union enterprise agreements and 31 non-union enterprise agreements.〔(Percentage of Union and Non-union Certified Agreements in the Federal Public Service ) from ''Union gets ready for hostile Senate'' by Verona Burgess, Australian Financial Review, 8 April 2005, as published in CPSU bulletin April 2005〕 According to a report in The Australian newspaper in March 2007, about five per cent of the total workforce is employed on AWAs, with about 32 per cent of miners employed on AWAs, but this figure is much higher in Western Australia where up to 52 per cent are on AWAs. Rio Tinto pioneered individual employment contacts under common law in the 1980s in Western Australia with productivity improvements of between 20 and 35 per cent, according to Rio Tinto managing director Charlie Lenegan.〔''Employers Defend Howard’s AWAs Despite Slow Take-Up'' by Brad Norington & Andrew Trounson, The Australian, 31 March 2007, p. 33. ()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian workplace agreement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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