New South Wales Consolidated Acts

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 325

325 Approval of contract agreement by Commission

(1) The Commission is to approve each contract agreement lodged for approval, but only if the Commission is satisfied that:

(a) the agreement complies with all relevant statutory requirements (including the requirements of this Part and of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 ), and

(b) the agreement does not, on balance, provide a net detriment to the drivers or carriers who are to be covered by the agreement when compared with the aggregate package of conditions of engagement under relevant contract determinations that would otherwise apply to the drivers or carriers, and

(c) the parties understand the effect of the agreement, and

(d) the parties did not enter the agreement under duress.

(2) This subsection applies to a contract agreement that applies to contracts of carriage entered into by some but not all of the carriers engaged by the principal contractor or contractors bound by the agreement, unless those carriers comprise a distinct geographical, operational or organisational unit. The Commission is not to approve such a contract agreement if it is satisfied that:

(a) the contract agreement fails to cover other carriers engaged by the principal contractor or contractors who would reasonably be expected to be covered, given the nature of the work performed under the contracts to which the agreement applies and the organisational and operational relationships between the carriers bound by the agreement and those other carriers, and

(b) it is unfair not to cover the carriers excluded from the contract agreement.

(3) The Commission is to follow the principles for approval set under section 33 (Principles for approval of enterprise agreements), with any necessary modifications, when deciding whether to approve a contract agreement, unless satisfied that any departure from those principles would not prejudice the interests of any of the parties to the agreement.