Application for approval of the GR Engineering Services Limited Enterprise Agreement 2025

[1] GR Engineering Services Limited (the Employer) has made an application for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the GR Engineering Services Limited Enterprise Agreement 2025 (the Agreement) pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). The Agreement is a single enterprise agreement.

[2] The Agreement will apply to employees who are covered by the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (the Award).

[3] The Commission identified that 26 out of 26 employees covered by the Agreement are engaged on a casual basis and were included by the Employer as employees eligible to participate in the vote on the Agreement. The Employer provided submissions showing that all 26 casual employees were employed at the time and entitled to vote. I am satisfied that in light of the Full Bench decision in Appeal by Kmart Australia Limited t/a Kmart and others,[1] the requirement in s.181(1) of the Act has been met.

Sufficient Interest and Sufficiently Representative

[4] The F17 Declaration submitted by the Employer indicated that the 26 employees who voted on the Agreement were not employed across the full range of full time or part time classifications in the Agreement pursuant to s.188(2) of the Act and paragraph 17 of the Statement of Principles on Genuine Agreement.

[5] Consequently, the Commission was unable to make a determination as to whether the employees who voted on the Agreement have a sufficient interest in the terms of the agreement or were sufficiently representative of the employees it intends to cover.

[6] The Employer subsequently provided submissions which indicated that the Employer does not have any full-time or part-time employees covered by the Agreement, the nature of remote mining construction workforces is that employees prefer casual employment, the work is intermittent, and project based, and employees are rarely engaged on a full-time or part-time basis. The Employer provided a list of the classifications of the employees engaged by the Employer who were entitled to vote for the Agreement. Based on those submissions, I am satisfied that the employees requested to approve the agreement by voting for it have a sufficient interest in the terms of the agreement and are sufficiently representative.

Inconsistency with the National Employment Standards (NES)

[7] Clause 13.4 of the Agreement provides that an employee is not entitled to redundancy pay if they reject any offer of other acceptable employment. This provision is not subject to an application to the Commission in accordance with s.120 of the Act.

[8] The Commission raised the following issues with the Employer which are relevant to whether employees are better off overall under the Agreement compared to the relevant Award:

1. The Agreement does not provide a definition of shiftworker and an additional week of leave as provided by clauses 2 and 31.1(b) of the Award.

2. The Agreement provides that casual employees receive a loaded rate. The Full Bench decision in Loaded Rates Agreements[2] provides that it will be difficult for casual employees receiving loaded rates to pass the BOOT. The Employer submitted that employees covered by the Agreement work a three week on/one week off Fly In Fly Out roster and are transported to site by charter or commercial flights and provided with accommodation and food while on site. The Employer submitted that it would be highly unlikely that an employee would be on site for a period of less than one week. The Employer submitted that the loaded rates of pay in the Agreement are calculated on the basis of this roster and that it is reasonably foreseeable that employees will continue to work this roster pattern. The Employer has provided an undertaking in the event that a casual employee is employed for a period other than this roster pattern.

[9] The Employer provided written submissions and undertakings to address the above NES and BOOT issues. A copy of the undertakings is attached in Schedule C of the Agreement. I am satisfied that the undertakings will not cause financial detriment to any employee covered by the Agreement and that the undertakings will not result in substantial changes to the Agreement. The undertakings are taken to be a term of the Agreement.

[10] Subject to the undertakings referred to above, I am satisfied that each of the requirements of ss.186, 187, 188 and 190 as are relevant to this application for approval have been met.

[11] The Agreement is approved and, in accordance with s.54 of the Act, will operate from 17 October 2025. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 10 October 2029.

[1] [2019] FWCFB 7599

[2] [2018] FWCFB 3610

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