Legal effect of enterprise agreements and interaction with other instruments/laws

Once an enterprise agreement has been approved by the FWC and it comes into operation, it will exclude the application of any otherwise applicable modern award.

An enterprise agreement must not exclude the National Employment Standards (NES), but may include terms that are expressly permitted under the NES or applicable regulations, or terms that are ancillary, incidental or supplementary to the NES, but only to the extent that such terms are not detrimental to the employees in any respect. An enterprise agreement could, for example provide redundancy entitlements in excess of those set out under the NES.

A person must not contravene an enterprise agreement that applies to them, and civil remedies may be imposed for a contravention.

See Legal effect of enterprise agreements and interaction with other instruments/laws.