Fair Work Commission

Overview

Enterprise agreements and modern awards contain minimum entitlements for wages and conditions of employment.

Some employees are not covered by an award or an enterprise agreement. For these employees, a national minimum wage order provides a safety net of minimum wages.

The National Employment Standards (NES) are minimum standards that cannot be overridden by the terms of enterprise agreements or awards.

Agreements

Most enterprise agreements include:

• wage rates
• employment conditions (eg hours of work, meal breaks, overtime)
• a consultation process
• dispute resolution procedures
• deductions from wages for any purpose authorised by an employee.

Enterprise agreements cannot include unlawful content (such as discriminatory or objectionable terms).

Awards

If you are not covered by an agreement, your minimum wages and conditions are likely to be set by a modern award.

The modern award will deal with:

• minimum wage rates
• annual leave, and annual leave loading
• other types of leave
• hours of work
• penalty rates, overtime and casual rates
• allowances
• consultation, and
• many other minimum conditions.