This note is not part of the order, but is intended to indicate its general effect.

This order revokes the Epidemic Preparedness (Employment Relations Act 2000—Collective Bargaining) Immediate Modification Order 2020 (the principal order) on 6 May 2022 (the revocation date). The principal order modified restrictions and requirements imposed by the Employment Relations Act 2000 (the Act) that the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety was satisfied would be impossible or impracticable to comply (or comply fully) with due to the effects or likely effects of COVID-19.

The requirements modified by the principal order are set out in the following sections of the Act:

• section 43, which requires an employer that initiates bargaining or that receives a notice initiating bargaining for a collective agreement to draw the existence and coverage of the bargaining, and the intended parties, to the attention of all employees whose work would be covered by the intended coverage clause as soon as possible and no later than—

  • 10 days after bargaining is initiated, if only 1 employer is identified as an intended party to the bargaining; or

  • 15 days after bargaining is initiated, if only 1 employer is identified as an intended party to the bargaining:

• section 50(2), which applies if an employer receives 2 or more notices of initiation of bargaining from different unions that relate to the same type of work. If the employer wishes to request that bargaining is consolidated (a consolidation request) they must make that consolidation request within 40 days after receiving the first notice:

• section 50(3), which requires a union that receives a consolidation request to respond within 30 days after receiving the request:

• section 51, which prohibits a union from signing a collective agreement or a variation of the collective agreement unless the agreement or variation has been ratified in accordance with a ratification procedure notified by the union at the beginning of bargaining for the collective agreement or the variation:

• section 53, which provides that a collective agreement continues in force for a period not exceeding 12 months past its expiry date if—

  • the union or the employer initiated collective bargaining before the collective agreement expired and for the purpose of replacing the collective agreement; and

  • bargaining continues for a collective agreement to replace the collective agreement that has expired.

The effects of the modifications made by the principal order are to—

• modify the maximum time frames under section 43 of the Act to exclude the period while the Epidemic Preparedness (COVID-19) Notice 2020 (the Epidemic Notice) is in force; and

• modify the maximum time frames under section 50(2) and (3) of the Act to exclude the period while the Epidemic Notice is in force; and

• allow the union to notify the other intended party or parties to a collective agreement of a new ratification procedure to ratify the collective agreement (eg, online balloting, videoconferencing, or teleconferencing) if a union committed at the outset of collective bargaining to a ratification procedure that is no longer practicable (eg, in-person ratification meetings); and

• modify the maximum 12-month period for which a collective agreement can continue in force past its expiry date while bargaining continues for a replacement collective agreement to exclude the period while the Epidemic Notice is in force if the 12-month period would otherwise end while the Epidemic Notice is in force or up to 3 months after it expires or is revoked.

The Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety is satisfied that the requirements modified by the principal order will no longer be impossible or impracticable to comply with by the revocation date.

The effect of the revocation of the principal order is to—

• end, on the revocation date, all the modifications made by the principal order; but

• otherwise not affect the operation of the principal order, or anything done or suffered under it, before the revocation date.

Despite the revocation,—

• the effect of the modifications before 6 May 2022 to exclude the period while the Epidemic Notice was in force from the time periods in the Act continues so that the relevant periods continue to exclude any days during which the Epidemic Notice was in force before 6 May 2022; and

• a union that notified the other intended party or parties of a new ratification procedure under clause 7(2)(a) of the principal order can choose whether to continue to use the new ratification procedure or revert back to the ratification procedure that was notified to the other intended party or parties at the beginning of bargaining.

This order is revoked on 1 July 2023.