Review of Part-Time Provisions in Certain Modern Awards

Submission by the Australian Council of Trade Unions

The purpose of this submission is to respond to the invitation contained within the Statement issued by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on 19 December 2025 in relation to the FWC’s proposed scope of research for the Review of Part-time Provisions in certain Modern Awards (“the Review”); specifically, in relation to proposal 4, the employer and employee survey.

We note that, as indicated in the September Statement, the form of the questions and survey design will be determined by the contracted supplier and be informed by engagement with the parties and Commission staff. We would like to take this opportunity to indicate that, in the ACTU’s view, once an external provider has been commissioned and the proposed questions and survey design have been provisionally created, it would be beneficial for the FWC to convene a conference so that interested parties may provide specific feedback, as has occurred in other matters before the FWC.

The ACTU has reviewed the list of proposed key areas for the survey, as provided by the September statement, and has consulted with its affiliates. The ACTU supports the submissions made by the AMWU, ASU, HSU and UWU and makes the following supplementary observations.

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