Recent reforms aim to improve processes at the Fair Work Commission and make other changes to workplace laws.
What’s changing
The Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Act 2026 makes changes to workplace laws, including to:
- Fair Work Commission processes
- rights for regulated road transport contractors
- employer preferencing in Commonwealth grants or procurement
- supported bargaining authorisations
- intractable bargaining workplace determinations
- other organisations.
The new laws help the Fair Work Commission more effectively perform its functions while making separate amendments to the Fair Work Act and other workplace legislation. They take effect from 7 July 2026.
Keep reading for a summary of the changes.
Fair Work Commission processes
The Fair Work Commission (the Commission) is the national workplace relations tribunal and registered organisations regulator.
The Commission is now empowered to deal with general protectionsA set of rights under the Fair Work Act 2009 that cover all employees under the national workplace relations system. dismissals or unlawful terminationWhere an employee’s employment is ended by their employer for reasons that are discriminatory or against the law. disputes without first needing to decide whether the applicant was dismissed. It can now, where appropriate and with the consent of the parties, decide certain matters based on written documents (‘on the papers’) without proceeding to a formal conference or hearing. Examples of these matters are:
- unfair dismissalWhen an employee’s dismissal is harsh, unjust or unreasonable and is not a genuine redundancy.
- unfair deactivation
- unfair termination.
The Commission can also dismiss unfair deactivation or unfair termination applications on the basis that they’re frivolous, vexatious or have no reasonable prospects of success. It can also stop a person whose application has been dismissed as frivolous, vexatious or with no reasonable prospects of success from making another application without permission.
The President of the Commission can also now delegate the Commission’s powers to certain Commission staff to issue certificates to parties in general protections dismissals and unlawful termination disputes. This is so that the matter can proceed to arbitration in the Commission, or to court.
Changes to Commission processes generally only apply to new applications made on or after 7 July 2026.
A reminder that we’re the Fair Work Ombudsman. Read more about the difference at Difference between the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission.
Rights for regulated road transport contractors
A new road transport contractor high income threshold will apply to regulated road transport contractorsA regulated road transport contractor is an independent contractor in the road transport industry who meets set criteria.. It applies for the purposes of certain entitlements and protections instead of the contractor high income thresholdThe amount of money earned by a contractor before certain Fair Work Commission remedies no longer apply, including for unfair deactivation, unfair termination and unfair contract terms. A contractor who earns more than this amount can also choose not to use the whole of relationship test to define their relationship. The contractor high income threshold changes each year..
Under the changes, a road transport contractor earning more than the new relevant threshold can’t make a claim with the Commission for an:
- unfair contract terms remedy, or
- unfair termination remedy.
A road transport contractor earning less than the new threshold amount also can’t issue a notice to opt out of the whole of relationship test.
The road transport contractor high income threshold amount will be set at a later date by the Fair Work Regulations. We’ll update our website when this information is available.
Employer preferencing in Commonwealth grants or procurement
The Commonwealth can now preference certain employers in contractual arrangements whose employees are covered by an enterprise agreementAn enterprise agreement sets out minimum employment conditions and can apply to one business or a group of businesses. without breaching discrimination rules of the Fair Work Act in some circumstances. This also includes preferencing employers because their employees are covered by an enterprise agreement that covers an employee organisation (like a union).
It applies to:
- Commonwealth entities, and
- other persons acting as required or authorised under certain kinds of contractual arrangements.
Examples of contractual arrangements are:
- making or administering a grant of financial assistance
- procuring or providing goods or services, or
- entering into (or fulfilling the term and conditions of) types of contractual arrangements that are determined by a relevant Minister.
Supported bargaining authorisations
Where multiple employers and their employees find it difficult to bargain for an agreement themselves, they can apply for a supported bargaining authorisation from the Commission.
Under the changes, there is a faster way for the Commission to make a supported bargaining authorisation in some circumstances. Parties to an existing supported bargaining agreement can follow a new process to obtain a subsequent supported bargaining authorisation to bargain for a new agreement. Usually, several procedural steps have to happen before this is allowed by the Commission.
There are other requirements for the Commission to make an authorisation under the new process. These include that the:
- proposed agreement must cover the same (or substantially the same) employers and employees as the earlier supported bargaining agreement, and
- application must be made by a union that was a bargaining representative of the earlier agreement within specific timeframes.
To learn more about these authorisations, visit the Commission’s Supported bargaining authorisations page.
Intractable bargaining workplace determinations
During bargaining for an enterprise agreement, parties can make an application to the Commission for an intractable bargaining declaration when they can’t progress the bargaining and a resolution can’t be reached.
If the Commission issues a declaration and the parties still can’t resolve the dispute, the Commission must make an intractable bargaining workplace determination.
Under the changes, certain ‘mandatory terms’ that are included in an intractable bargaining workplace determination issued by the Commission can’t be less favourable to employees than those of the enterprise agreement they were previously covered by.
Examples of mandatory terms are workplace delegates’ rights terms and dispute resolution terms.
Find out more about these processes from the Commission’s website: Intractable bargaining declarations.
Other organisations
There are also changes to the rules of some organisations, including:
- updated reporting timeframes for the Administrator of the Construction Forestry Manufacturing and Energy Union
- a new travel allowance for members of the Road Transport Advisory Group
- changes to membership and travel allowances for members of National Construction Industry Forum.
What you can do now
We’ll update our Regulated workers in the road transport industry page when the new Road Transport Contractor High Income Threshold has been set by the Fair Work Regulations. We encourage you to keep checking back here for updates.
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