Common rule awards are a particular form of

industrial award A modern award (or award previously known as an "industrial award") is a ruling in Australian labour law of the national Fair Work Commission (or its predecessor) or by a state industrial relations commission which grants all wage earners in one ...

used in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to regulate minimum terms and conditions of employment. Awards are the end product of the processes of

conciliation Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution process whereby the parties to a dispute rely on a neutral third-party known as the conciliator, to assist them in solving their dispute. The conciliator, who may meet with the parties both sep ...

and

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

where an industrial tribunal makes an award in settlement of an industrial dispute. Whereas awards are legally binding on all parties to the dispute which are named in the award, with common rule awards all employers in the industry or occupation covered by the award are bound by it. Common rule awards were standard in Australia's state industrial relations systems and covered hundreds of thousands of employees and employers. It has long been held that the Australian parliament's conciliation and arbitration power, (xxxv). did not permit common rule awards in the Federal industrial relations system. In 2003 Victoria referred powers to the Commonwealth, (xxxvii). to provide for the

Australian Industrial Relations Commission The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powe ...

to make common rule awards for Victoria. This followed the abolition of State awards in 1996 by the Victorian Government which stripped more than 350,000 Victorian employees of their award conditions. The question of referral disappeared with the establishment of a national regime of workplace relations through the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 (Cth), which did not rely on the Australian parliament's conciliation and arbitration power instead being primarily founded on the

corporations power Section 51(00) of the Australian Constitution is a subsection of Section 51 of the Australian Constitution that gives the Commonwealth Parliament the power to legislate with respect to "foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations f ...

. (xx).. WorkChoices was replaced by the ''

Fair Work Act 2009 The ''Fair Work Act 2009'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, passed by the Rudd government to reform the industrial relations system of Australia. Replacing the Howard government's WorkChoices legislation, the Act established ...

'',. which was similarly founded on the corporations power and not the conciliation and arbitration power. In addition the ''Fair Work Act'' relied on a referral from most states under the referral power. The ''Fair Work Act'' established common rule awards called "Modern Awards" that are of general application and set out minimum terms and conditions for particular industries and occupations. there were 122 modern awards of general application.

References

Australian labour law Industrial agreements {{Australia-law-stub