Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Act 2017 (No 1) (CTH)
Friday 17 February 2017 @ 11.14 a.m. | Industrial Law
The Commonwealth Government has given assent to its first Act for the 2017 calendar year; the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Act 2017. Essentially, the Act amends the transitional ‘grace period’ from 28 November 2018 to 1 September 2017 that exempts building industry participants from the requirement to comply with any enterprise agreement content rules; namely, the prohibition of restrictive clauses that limit the ability of a contractor to manage its business or improve productivity as well as those clauses that give unions disproportionate power on building sites.
The ‘grace period’ exemption allowed for enterprise agreements made before the inception of the Building Code on the 2 December 2016 a small window in order to ensure their agreements become code compliant. The Act amends the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 to reduce the grace period by over a year and require all agreements made prior to the Building Code be compliant by 1 September 2017.
According to the Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton:
The Act further makes appropriate amendments to ensure that participants who have submitted their tender for Commonwealth funded work prior to the 2 December 2016 remain eligible to be awarded the work until 28 November 2018. Other than these things, the Act does not introduce any new requirements or rules to the existing Building Code.
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Sources:
Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Act 2017, Bill and Secondary Materials as Published on LawOne
