Fair Work Commission President, Justice Ross, today announced his intention that online agreement forms will become the standard method of lodgment for all single and multi-enterprise agreement approval applications from 1 March 2023.
In the 2021-22 financial year, the Fair Work Commission dealt with more than 4,500 enterprise agreement applications. Over recent years we have made significant improvements in the time it takes to finalise these types of applications, working towards meeting new internal timeliness benchmarks.
As part of our commitment to ongoing digital transformation, we have developed an improved online lodgment service. The service allows users to lodge single-enterprise and multi-enterprise agreement applications electronically using an online form (Form F16). The related employer's declaration (Form F17) can also be lodged online through the improved service. Currently, approximately 51% of these types of applications are being lodged using the online forms.
The online forms are designed to provide an easier way to fill in and lodge agreement applications and declarations. In addition, their integration with our internal case management system has helped reduce administrative processing time for these applications by 70%.
The Statement issued by the President today outlines the proposed next steps towards transitioning from paper-based applications to online applications becoming standard. It also provides details about our performance benchmarks and timeliness improvements for enterprise agreement applications.
President's statement: Enterprise agreements – timeliness and online forms (pdf)
We are seeking feedback on the President's provisional view that online agreement forms will become the standard method of lodgment for all single and multi-enterprise agreement approval applications from 1 March 2023.
Any feedback should be sent to [email protected] by no later than 5pm on Thursday, 10 November 2022.