The Australian Government has passed the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. This legislation amends the Fair Work Act to change a number of existing rules and introduces a range of new workplace laws.

The Fair Work Act has been amended to change a number of existing rules and include a range of new laws. Many of these changes start on 7 December 2022, but other changes start later.

Find out more about these changes and when they start:

• Pay secrecy, job ads and flexible work
• Gender equality measures and small claims process
• Enterprise agreements and enterprise bargaining
• Abolition of the ABCC and the ROC

What applies now

The following changes have started from 7 December 2022:

Job security

• new workplace rights on disclosing pay and workplace conditions
• prohibiting pay secrecy

Gender equality measures

• new protected attributes in the Fair Work Act:
  • breastfeeding
  • gender identity
  • intersex status
• new objects of the Fair Work Act, modern awards and minimum wages
• equal remuneration principles and orders
• functions we perform, including around guidelines and community outreach in multiple languages

Enterprise agreements and enterprise bargaining

• termination of enterprise agreements after their nominal expiry date
• sunsetting of ‘zombie’ agreements
• initiating bargaining
• dealing with errors in enterprise agreements.

Visit the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations webpage here to find more information.