Fair Work Act 2009

A term of an enterprise agreement is an objectionable emergency management term if an employer covered by the agreement is a designated emergency management body and the term has, or is likely to have, the effect of:

restricting or limiting the body’s ability to do any of the following:

engage or deploy its volunteers;

provide support or equipment to those volunteers;

manage its relationship with, or work with, any recognised emergency management body in relation to those volunteers;

otherwise manage its operations in relation to those volunteers; or

requiring the body to consult, or reach agreement with, any other person or body before taking any action for the purposes of doing anything mentioned in subparagraph (a)(i), (ii), (iii) or (iv); or

restricting or limiting the body’s ability to recognise, value, respect or promote the contribution of its volunteers to the well‑being and safety of the community; or

requiring or permitting the body to act other than in accordance with a law of a State or Territory, so far as the law confers or imposes on the body a power, function or duty that affects or could affect its volunteers.

However, a term of an enterprise agreement is not an objectionable emergency management term if:

both of the following apply:

the term provides for the matters required by subsections 205(1) and (1A) (which deal with terms about consultation in enterprise agreements);

the term does not provide for any other matter that has, or is likely to have, the effect referred to in paragraph (1)(a), (b), (c) or (d) of this section; or

the term is the model consultation term.

Paragraphs (1)(a), (b), (c) and (d) do not limit each other.

A body is a designated emergency management body if:

either:

the body is, or is a part of, a fire‑fighting body or a State Emergency Service of a State or Territory (however described); or

the body is a recognised emergency management body that is prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subparagraph; and

the body is, or is a part of a body that is, established for a public purpose by or under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.

However, a body is not a designated emergency management body if the body is, or is a part of a body that is, prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

A person is a volunteer of a designated emergency management body if:

the person engages in activities with the body on a voluntary basis (whether or not the person directly or indirectly takes or agrees to take an honorarium, gratuity or similar payment wholly or partly for engaging in the activity); and

the person is a member of, or has a member‑like association with, the body.

If:

a term of an enterprise agreement deals to any extent with the following matters relating to provision of essential services or to situations of emergency:

directions to perform work (including to perform work at a particular time or place, or in a particular way);

directions not to perform work (including not to perform work at a particular time or place, or in a particular way); and

the application of subsection (1) in relation to the term would (apart from this subsection) be beyond the Commonwealth’s legislative power to the extent that the term deals with those matters;

See paragraph (l) of the definition of excluded subject matter in subsections 30A(1) and 30K(1).