Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) are individual contracts “negotiated” between a single worker and an employer. Their only purpose is to override (and eventually undercut) the conditions in a collective agreement or award.

You will have to negotiate your working conditions with your employer by yourself and in secret and re-negotiate the terms each time your AWA expires. Most employers use AWAs on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, with no genuine opportunity to negotiate at all.

AWAs threaten essential working conditions by:

• cutting sick leave, family leave, long service leave, penalty rates;
• increasing teaching hours;
• increasing hours in the workplace.

AWAs divide and conquer by:

• creating division and suspicion;
• operating in secrecy;
• attacking equal pay for equal work;
• leaving people to bargain individually, with no collective strength behind their claims.

AWAs take away protection:

• who'll stand up for you?
• do you understand the complexities of WorkCover and the OH&S Act?

Australian Workplace Agreements are an ideological tool – they blow away:

your right to negotiate working conditions as a collective group;
your right to common standards which apply to everyone in your workplace;
your right to even know what working conditions apply in your workplace.