Application for approval of the Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation Enterprise Agreement 2025 - 2029

[1] An application has been made for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation Enterprise Agreement 2025-2029 (Agreement). The application was made by Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation (Applicant) pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Act). The Agreement is a single enterprise agreement.

[2] Clause 5.1 of the agreement provides that other than where the Agreement expressly provides otherwise, the Agreement incorporates the following modern awards, as amended or replaced from time to time (Awards):

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020;

• Children's Services Award 2010;

• Medical Practitioners Award 2020;

• Nurses Award 2020; and

• Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010

[3] The wage rates in the Agreement are the equivalent of those in the Awards and in those circumstances the Commission sought further information from the Applicant addressing whether employees are better off overall under the Agreement compared to the Awards. In response the Applicant made submissions identifying Agreement provisions that are more beneficial than those in the Awards including a range of leave entitlements that variously apply to all types of employees. In particular, full time and part time employees:

• are granted a leave day for the Friday of NAIDOC week if they are ordinarily required to perform work on that day (clause 34.3);

• are able to access up to 38 hours of paid leave per year for cultural leave purposes (pro-rata for part-time employees)(clause 38);

• are able to take paid personal/carer's leave to attend health checks (clause 30.6(c)).

[4] Eligible full-time, part-time and casual employees:

• may access eight weeks paid parental leave if they are a primary carer and two weeks if they are a secondary carer (clause 32.3);

• are granted leave for the three days between Christmas and Boxing Day (clause 35.1) and an additional two days over the Christmas break as designated by the corporation two months before the Christmas break each year (clause 35.3). This also applies to casual employees who would ordinarily perform work on the days where the granted days fall.

[5] Further, the Agreement includes an extended definition of "immediate family" which extends employee access to paid and unpaid parental leave, carer's leave and compassionate leave in comparison to the Award entitlements which reference the National Employment Standards.

[6] Having considered the submissions of the Applicant identifying entitlements in the Agreement that are more beneficial than those in the Awards and in the absence of any material detriments, I am satisfied that, as at the test time, each award covered employee, and each reasonably foreseeable employee, for the Agreement would be better off overall if the Agreement applied to the employee than if the relevant modern award applied to the employee.

[7] On the basis of the materials before the Commission, I am satisfied that each of the requirements of ss.186, 187 and 188 of the Act as are relevant to the application for approval of the Agreement have been met.

[8] The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, being a bargaining representative for the Agreement, has given notice under s.183 of the Act that it wants the Agreement to cover it. In accordance with s.201(2) of the Act, I note that the Agreement covers the organisation.

[9] The Agreement is approved and, in accordance with s.54 of the Act, will operate from 31 October 2025. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 24 October 2029.

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