Regional Water Industry – Multi Employer Agreement


The ASU is negotiating the first multi-employer agreements to cover Regional Water Industry Employers in Victoria after obtaining support from our members and consent from the employers.

Got questions about the multi-employer agreement? Click on the drop down boxes below.

1. What is an Multi Employer Agreement?
A multi-employer agreement (MEA) is an enterprise agreement that covers 2 or more employers who have a ‘common interest’ and the business activities are reasonably comparable. Common interests include geographical location, regulatory regime and the size and scope of the enterprises and terms and conditions of employment in those enterprises.

Regional Water Industry Employers have common interests as they perform the work of Victorian public entities responsible for the supply of water and sewerage services which are established under the Water Act 1989. Water Industry Employers are entirely owned by, and report to, the Victorian Government; and the private businesses performing outsourced work in this industry report to the Water corporations who report to the Government.

2. Who will the proposed MEA cover?
The ASU is currently consulting with workers employed by regional water industry employers and the businesses to which they outsource work, and who have Enterprise Agreements expiring this year as to whether they want to participate in the Multi-Employer Agreement. If ASU members at each of these sites support the MEA proposal, then we will submit an application for a single Multi Employer Agreement to cover all participating regional water industry employers.

3. Why is an MEA a good idea?
The benefits of MEA bargaining as opposed to the traditional single enterprise bargaining are:
  • Industrial action can be taken across many regional water industry employers in support of the agreement, giving the industrial action greater profile and more effectively gaining media and political attention.
  • We can utilise the expertise of delegates and organisers across the state and invest in a smaller number of agreements.
  • We can pursue the best conditions from across the state.
  • Unions must consent before an enterprise agreement is put out to a vote of all employees.


4. How do you enter an MEA?
The Fair Work Commission has to authorise a ‘single interest employer authorisation’ before bargaining for an MEA can commence. To apply for an authorisation, a Union must either gain the consent of each employer or show that a majority of workers employed at each enterprise supports bargaining for an MEA. This can be demonstrated by a simple petition of workers of a majority of workers.

The FWC cannot grant an Authorisation until the agreement expires.

5. How do we deal with the different conditions at each regional water industry employer and ensure they aren’t lost in an MEA?
The log of claims will prioritise a claim to ‘preserve all existing conditions in the predecessor agreement’. This savings provision will ensure that workers get the benefit of whatever is achieved at the bargaining table through the MEA process whilst also preserving conditions that were secured in predecessor single enterprise agreements.

Example of a savings provision clause:
No employee will as a result of making this Agreement, suffer any loss of existing wages or other benefits to which the employee is entitled prior to the date of the coming into operation of this Agreement except where specifically provided for by this Agreement.

6. Will this affect my pay rise?
The law requires that the FWC cannot grant a Single Interest Employer Authorisation until after an agreement expires. This means that bargaining cannot commence until this time. For many enterprise agreements, the wage increase falls at the same time as expiry, so this will likely delay the pay rise by a short time. However, as you know it is very common for bargaining to be delayed for single enterprise agreements, and just like we do with single bargaining – we will prioritise back pay so workers are not worse off (and have stronger bargaining power to achieve back pay and fair pay!).