Variation of Enterprise Agreements

Many ofyou have been asking whether you are able to waive upcoming pay increases provided in yourEAor make other changes to your EAto assist you during the COVID-19 pandemic.Some changes might be able to be achieved through individual flexibility agreements (see your Flexibility clauses to see what items are able to be varied –most likely hours of work, overtime, allowances and annual leave loading) but changes like waiving pay increases and other topic areas which are not expressly dealt with in individual flexibility clauses will need to be formally varied and approved by FWC.This is quite a significant process –only slightly less than the process used for making the EA in the first place–although the government has recently legislated for some reductions in the ‘administrative burden’ by reducing the access period from 7 days down to 1. By way of example, in a FWC decisionbefore JobKeeper was announced, an electrical construction business succeeded in having a variation to waive a 3% pay increase set for 31 March 2020 approved. The variation had been approved by 80% of its employeeswhich indicates a highlevel of support by its workforce–and may have been a factor in FWC have little trouble with such an approval. We have attached some Q&A’s about the process to vary an enterprise agreement.