Fair Work Commission

Introduction

As a part of the award stage of the 4 yearly review of modern awards under s.156 of the Fair Work Act 2009, the Fair Work Commission is re-drafting a number of awards in plain language.

A Full Bench of the Commission is dealing with plain language re-drafting of award-specific clauses and other matters that affect most or multiple modern awards.

Guidelines and pilot

The Commission conducted a pilot to create a plain language exposure draft of the Pharmacy Industry Award 2010 (the Pharmacy Award) that was simpler and easier for employees and employers to understand than the current Pharmacy Award.

Plain language guidelines have been developed to assist in re-drafting modern awards.

Awards under review

Some modern awards have been referred to the plain language re-drafting Full Bench for comprehensive review.

Other matters

Other matters that relate to most or multiple awards have also been referred to the plain language re-drafting Full Bench. These currently include:

• standard clauses (clauses arising from previous test cases which are the same in most awards)
• references to loadings or penalties
• reasonable overtime
• annual leave shutdown
• National Training Wage.