The Workplace Authority was an

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

statutory agency that existed from 1 July 2007 to 1 July 2009. It replaced and expanded the role of the Office of the Employment Advocate, which had existed since 1997. It was replaced by the

Fair Work Ombudsman The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) (or formally, the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman), is an independent statutory agency of the Government of Australia that serves as the central point of contact for free advice and information on the Australian ...

and Fair Work Australia (since renamed the

Fair Work Commission The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Austral ...

). The primary role of the Office of the Employment Advocate was to accept the lodgement of

Australian workplace agreement An Australian workplace agreement (AWA) was a type of formalised individual agreement negotiated between an employer and employee in Australia that existed from 1996 to 2009. Employers could offer a "take it or leave it" AWA as a condition of empl ...

s. In March 2006 the Office's role expanded to include the lodgement of collective agreements. The ''Workplace Relations Amendment (A Stronger Safety Net) Act 2007'' received royal assent on 28 June 2007, establishing the Workplace Authority and introducing the Fairness Test, as part of the

WorkChoices WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard government#Fourth term: 2004–2007, Howard government in 2005, being amendments to the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996'' by the '' ...

amendments to

Australian labour law Australian labour law sets the rights of working people, the role of trade unions, and democracy at work, and the duties of employers, across the Commonwealth and in states. Under the ''Fair Work Act 2009'', the Fair Work Commission creates a na ...

. The Authority's director, Barbara Bennett, was responsible for assessing whether agreements lodged on or after 7 May 2007 passed the Fairness Test. However she also agreed to be the front of the Howard Government's WorkChoices advertising campaign in 2007 and received heavy criticism for her role. The Authority also received strong criticism concerning the enormous backlog of unassessed Workplace Agreements lodged after Bennett's appointment.Backlog on Fairness Test
/ref> The Fairness Test was applied to Australian workplace agreements and collective agreements to ensure they provided fair compensation for the removal or modification of protected award conditions, such as penalty rates and overtime loadings. The Authority could, upon request, carry out a pre-lodgement review of an agreement to assess whether it would pass the Fairness Test. Additionally, the Authority provided free support and advice to employers, particularly those in the small business sector, and employees, in the areas of agreement-making and lodgement of agreements, as well as advising on prohibited content and whether agreements met the minimum requirements as set in the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. The Workplace Authority was located in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It also operated a Workplace Infoline for workplace relations queries.

References

Industrial agreements Defunct Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia {{Australia-gov-stub