Enterprise Agreements (EBAs) in Australia 2026: How They Work and How to Find Yours

An enterprise agreement (often called an EBA, or enterprise bargaining agreement) is a collectively bargained agreement on pay and conditions between an employer and its employees, made under the Fair Work Act 2009 and approved by the Fair Work Commission. Once approved, it applies instead of the relevant modern award for the people it covers.

The key thing to understand: an enterprise agreement does not replace your legal safety net — it sits on top of it. It must leave employees better off overall than the award that would otherwise apply, and it can never undercut the National Employment Standards (NES).

If you work for a large employer — a supermarket, hardware chain, fast-food brand, hospital or warehouse — there is a good chance your day-to-day pay and rosters are set by an enterprise agreement rather than directly by the award.

A modern award is an industry- or occupation-wide minimum set by the Fair Work Commission — for example the General Retail Industry Award covers retail workers across the whole country. An enterprise agreement is specific to one employer (or group of employers) and is negotiated at the workplace.

The award is the floor. The enterprise agreement is what's actually built on top of it for that workplace. An EBA might trade off a higher base rate against simpler penalty structures, or fold loadings into an "all-up" rate — but the total package must still pass the Better Off Overall Test against the award.

Not sure which award applies to you in the first place? Use our "What award am I on?" tool to identify it before you compare.

Before the Fair Work Commission approves an enterprise agreement, it must be satisfied that each employee (and each prospective employee) would be better off overall under the agreement than under the relevant modern award. This is the BOOT.

"Better off overall" is assessed across the whole agreement, not line by line — so an EBA can pay a lower penalty on one shift type if it more than makes up for it elsewhere (a higher base rate, extra leave, or guaranteed hours). What it cannot do is leave a class of employees worse off across the package as a whole.

If you think your enterprise agreement leaves you worse off than the award, that's worth checking carefully — start with our underpayment checker.

There are three broad categories under the Fair Work Act:

• Single-enterprise agreement — the most common: one employer (or related employers) and its employees. Coles, Woolworths and Bunnings all operate single-enterprise agreements.
• Multi-enterprise agreement — two or more employers bargaining together. Since the 2022 Secure Jobs, Better Pay reforms this includes single-interest, supported-bargaining and cooperative-workplace streams, used more often in sectors like aged care and early childhood.
• Greenfields agreement — made for a new enterprise before any employees are engaged, between the employer and one or more unions.

An enterprise agreement has a nominal expiry date of up to four years from approval. Reaching the nominal expiry date does not end the agreement — it keeps operating until it is formally replaced by a new agreement or terminated by the Commission. That's why an agreement "from 2023" can still be the live agreement in 2026.

The nominal expiry date matters because it's the point from which employees and unions can take protected industrial action while bargaining for a replacement, and it signals when pay is likely to be renegotiated.

Every approved enterprise agreement is on the public record. To find yours:

• Check your payslip or contract — it often names the agreement and your classification level.
• Search the Fair Work Commission's Find an Enterprise Agreement database by employer name.
• If you're a union member, your union usually hosts a copy and a plain-English summary.

Once you have the agreement, find your classification, read the base rate and penalty tables, and compare them to the award floor. Our pay rate tools give you the award baseline to check against.

If there's no enterprise agreement, the relevant modern award applies directly, on top of the National Employment Standards. Most small businesses — cafes, single shops, small trades — run on the award alone, because bargaining an agreement is a formal process that only pays off at scale. We cover when it's worth it in Enterprise agreement vs award: does my business need one?