In summary, the Full Bench has decided that it will amend Modern Awards via the insertion of model clauses for occupational modern awards, industry based modern awards and occupational/industry based modern awards. This is good news as it avoids the situation where each and every award would be dealt with independently and confirms that we should have clarity on Modern Award coverage of on-hired employees on 4 December 2009.

Clients should be aware that there are essentially two types of Modern Award, Modern Awards which cover specific occupations e.g. Clerks and Nurses and Modern Awards which cover specific industries e.g. Retail and Mining. The important rule is that where both an occupational Modern Award covers an employee as well as an industry based Modern Award then the industry based award will override the occupational award.

In short, the Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) has gone with the RCSA/Ai Group recommended course of action and, unless there is a radical departure from this Statement, in most circumstances the industry based Modern Award which applies to clients will be the Modern Award which will apply to employers of on-hired employees and their on-hired employees. This will however, be confirmed on 4 December but it does allow clients a greater degree of confidence to assess award coverage based on client industry award coverage.

As more updates become available and a confirmed way forward, we will provide additional updates.