Fair Work Act 2009

This Act is intended to apply to the exclusion of all State or Territory industrial laws so far as they would otherwise apply in relation to a national system employee or a national system employer.

A State or Territory industrial law is:

a general State industrial law; or

an Act of a State or Territory that applies to employment generally and has one or more of the following as its main purpose or one or more of its main purposes:

regulating workplace relations (including industrial matters, industrial activity, collective bargaining, industrial disputes and industrial action);

providing for the establishment or enforcement of terms and conditions of employment;

providing for the making and enforcement of agreements (including individual agreements and collective agreements), and other industrial instruments or orders, determining terms and conditions of employment;

prohibiting conduct relating to a person’s membership or non‑membership of an industrial association;

providing for rights and remedies connected with the termination of employment;

providing for rights and remedies connected with conduct that adversely affects an employee in his or her employment; or

a law of a State or Territory that applies to employment generally and deals with leave (other than long service leave or leave for victims of crime); or

a law of a State or Territory providing for a court or tribunal constituted by a law of the State or Territory to make an order in relation to equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value; or

a law of a State or Territory providing for the variation or setting aside of rights and obligations arising under a contract of employment, or another arrangement for employment, that a court or tribunal finds is unfair; or

a law of a State or Territory that entitles a representative of a trade union to enter premises; or

an instrument made under a law described in paragraph (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) or (f), so far as the instrument is of a legislative character; or

either of the following:

a law that is a law of a State or Territory;

an instrument of a legislative character made under such a law;

Each of the following is a general State industrial law:

the Industrial Relations Act 1996 of New South Wales;

the Industrial Relations Act 1999 of Queensland;

the Industrial Relations Act 1979 of Western Australia;

the Fair Work Act 1994 of South Australia;

the Industrial Relations Act 1984 of Tasmania.

A law or an Act of a State or Territory applies to employment generally if it applies (subject to constitutional limitations) to:

all employers and employees in the State or Territory; or

all employers and employees in the State or Territory except those identified (by reference to a class or otherwise) by a law of the State or Territory.