STATEMENT

Fair Work Act 2009
s.156 - 4 yearly review of modern awards

4 yearly review of modern awards – Award stage – General Retail Industry Award 2010
(AM2017/60)

4 yearly review of modern awards – award stage – General Retail Industry Award 2010 – substantive issues – next steps.

[1] Section 156 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Fair Work Act) requires the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) to review all modern awards every four years (the Review). The Review has been divided into an Award stage, dealing with technical and drafting in awards and a Common Issues stage, dealing with claims affecting all of most modern awards. In the course of conducting the Award stage review, parties have also made claims for substantive changes to individual awards and these have been referred to separate Full Benches for determination. A Full Bench of the Commission is also redrafting a number of awards into plain language.

[2] This statement deals with the substantive issues in the review of General Retail Industry Award 2010 (the Retail Award).

[3] The Retail Award was originally included in Group 4 of the Award Stage but was selected for plain language re-drafting in a Statement dated 6 May 2016. 1

[4] On 24 March 2016 a summary of proposed variations for the Retail Award was published on the Commission’s website.

[5] In a Statement dated 27 November 2017, parties were given the opportunity to confirm, withdraw or reframe their claims in relation to the Retail Award. 2 A Further revised summary of submissions was then published on 23 January 2018.

[6] In a decision dealing with the technical and drafting issues for Group 4 awards dated 8 March 2018, the Full Bench confirmed that the outstanding substantive matters will be dealt with following the plain language process. 3

[7] A decision issued on 8 November 2018 (the November 2018 decision) finalised the plain language re-drafting of the Retail Award except for one outstanding issue. 4 An updated plain language exposure draft (PLED) was published on 20 November 2018.5

[8] Following the November 2018 decision, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) wrote to the Commission seeking an indication of when the PLED would become operational. The SDA expressed a preference for the PLED to become operational as soon as possible so that the outstanding substantive issues can be heard using the PLED instead of the Award. The SDA said that the process of having to revert to the current Retail Award and the PLED would be likely to add complexity and result in a more protracted process to resolve claims.

[9] As noted above, there is one outstanding issue still to be determined in the plain language process. In addition, as the Review draws to a conclusion, there are a number of changes that will be made to PLEDS and Award Stage exposure drafts. In early 2019 the Commission will issue a Statement setting out the process for finalising the Review of all awards.

Next steps

[10] Parties are asked to review the summary of submissions document dated 23 January 2018 and file a brief submission confirming which matters are being pursued following the plain language process. This submission should be filed by 4 pm on 14 December 2018.

[11] A mention will be listed at 1 pm on Thursday 20 December 2018. The purpose of the mention is to provide parties with an opportunity to express a view about the preference expressed by the SDA (see [8] above) and to discuss the programming of this matter.

PRESIDENT

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

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 1   [2016] FWC 2837

 2   [2017] FWC 6258

 3   [2018] FWCFB 1548

 4   [2018] FWCFB 6850 at [396]

 5   Revised PLED dated 20 November 2018