All Trades Queensland Pty Limited v Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Citation: [2017] FCAFC 189
What happened
All Trades Queensland and industry associations sought approval of a 2015 enterprise agreement covering apprentices and trainees in building, construction, engineering and automotive industries in Queensland. The company hires apprentices and trainees to other businesses. A dispute arose over which industrial instruments should be used to assess whether the agreement passed the 'better off overall test'—the company argued obsolete Queensland state awards should apply, while unions argued modern national awards should apply.
What was decided
The Full Court upheld the Fair Work Commission's decision that modern national awards were the correct comparator instruments for the 'better off overall test', and the old state awards had effectively been superseded. The application for approval of the enterprise agreement was dismissed because it did not satisfy the statutory test when compared against the applicable modern awards.
What it means for employers
Enterprise agreements must be assessed against current modern awards, not superseded historical state awards. Agreements that fail to provide employees with conditions better than or equal to applicable modern awards will not be approved. The transitional provisions of the Fair Work Act do not preserve obsolete awards as continuing comparators for enterprise agreement assessments.
What it means for employees
Employees covered by enterprise agreements remain protected by the requirement that such agreements must leave them better off overall compared to applicable modern awards. Employers cannot use old or transitional award provisions as a basis for reducing modern award entitlements.
Want this applied to your situation?
Reading the decision is free. FairWork Mate goes further — it reads the full case library and applies precedents like this one to your specific facts, citing the cases as it reasons. General information, not a guaranteed outcome or legal advice.
Every statement above is drawn from the published decision. Read the original here:
https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/full/2017/2017fcafc0189Want more cases like this?
FairWork Mate tracks Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission and Federal Court decisions across Australia. The AI advisor answers plain-English questions grounded on the full corpus — awards cited, industry, penalty amounts and affected employee counts — with a citation to the underlying decision on every answer.
Individual case summaries on this site are free. Full-corpus advisor access is a paid product — Business Solo from $99/mo, 50% off your first 3 months for the first 100 signups.
Get notified on new Fair Work cases
Free email alerts when we publish new underpayment decisions, penalty orders, and workplace law updates.
Free forever. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
This summary was drafted from the published decision and reviewed before publishing. It is general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, speak to the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified lawyer. About these summaries & corrections →