Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) 2022

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) 2022

## What it does

This law overhauls Australia's workplace rules to give workers more bargaining power and protections. It scraps two enforcement bodies (the Registered Organisations Commission and the Australian Building and Construction Commission), changes how pay agreements are negotiated, and strengthens protections against unfair treatment and harassment.

## Why it matters

If you're employed, these changes affect how your pay gets set, what happens when your employment contract ends, and what protections you have against discrimination and sexual harassment. For unionised workers and those in building and construction, the changes are particularly significant.

## Key details

- **Pay secrecy banned**: You can now openly discuss your wages with colleagues without fear of being fired, and employers can't punish you for it.
- **Sexual harassment protections**: Employers have stronger obligations to prevent harassment related to work, even outside the workplace or on social media.
- **Enterprise agreements**: New rules make it harder for outdated pay deals to stay locked in indefinitely—agreements can't just keep running forever without fresh negotiation, and the "better off overall test" (whether workers genuinely benefit) is being strengthened.
- **Flexible work rights**: Employees can request flexible arrangements for family and domestic violence reasons, and employers must consider these seriously rather than automatically refusing.

Official Description

Amends the: Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 to abolish the Registered Organisations Commission and provide for transitional arrangements; Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 to apply certain provisions of the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014 ; Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 to: abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission and provide for transitional arrangements; repeal the Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work 2016 ; and rename the Act to the Federal Safety Commissioner Act 2022 ; Fair Work Act 2009 to: amend the objects of the Act to include the promotion of job security and gender equity; guide the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in its consideration of equal remuneration and work value cases; establish a Pay Equity Expert Panel and a Care Community Sector Expert Panel to determine equal remuneration cases and certain award cases; prohibit pay secrecy; prohibit sexual harassment in connection with work; add the protected attributes of breastfeeding, gender identity and intersex status to the existing anti-discrimination provisions; limit the use of fixed term contracts; expand the circumstances in which an employee may request flexible work arrangements and empower the FWC to resolve disputes regarding flexible work arrangements; amend the requirements for approval of an enterprise agreement; simplify the process for initiating bargaining in certain circumstances; amend the Better Off Overall Test; enable the FWC to vary enterprise agreements to correct errors, defects or irregularities; provide for a new intractable bargaining declaration scheme; amend certain processes relating to industrial action and Protected Action Ballots; remove limitations on access to the low-paid bargaining stream and the single-interest employer authorisation stream; amend provisions relating to making multi-enterprise agreements (to be known as cooperative workplace agreements); amend small claims procedures to enable unpaid entitlement recovery; and prohibit national system employers from advertising employment at a rate of pay that would contravene the Act; Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 to provide that the FWC can only terminate an agreement that has nominally expired on the unilateral application of a party in limited circumstances; Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 to provide for the sunsetting of all remaining transitional instruments; and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 to update the worker's compensation presumptive liability provisions for firefighters. Also makes consequential amendments to four Acts and repeals the Building and Construction Industry (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2016 and Building and Construction Industry Improvement (Consequential and Transitional) Act 2005 .

Committee Referrals

Education and Employment Legislation Committee; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

27 Oct 2022

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

6 Dec 2022

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

How Parliament Voted

Senate10 Nov 2022

Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

AYES

–

NOES

FAILED

Constituent votes

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