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51: Ratification of collective agreement
or “Employees must agree before the union can sign a new work agreement or make changes to an existing one”
You could also call this:

“This explains when group work agreements start and end.”

A collective agreement is a special kind of work agreement. It starts working on the day it says it will start. If it doesn’t say when it starts, it begins on the day the last person signs it.

Sometimes, parts of the agreement can start working before or after the main start date. The agreement tells you if this happens.

The agreement will end on the earliest of these three dates:

  1. The date the agreement says it will end
  2. The date when something special happens that the agreement says will make it end
  3. Three years after the agreement started

There’s another rule called section 53 that might change when the agreement ends. You need to check that rule too.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

Next up: 53: Continuation of collective agreement after specified expiry date

or “When a union or employer starts talks for a new agreement before the old one ends, the old agreement keeps working for up to a year while they talk.”
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Part 5 Collective bargaining
Collective agreements

52When collective agreement comes into force and expires

  1. A collective agreement comes into force on—

  2. the date specified in the agreement as the date on which it comes into force; or
    1. if no such date is specified, the date on which the last party to the agreement, or its duly authorised representative, signed the agreement.

      1. A collective agreement may provide that 1 or more of its provisions have effect from 1 or more dates before or after the date on which the agreement comes into force.

      2. A collective agreement expires on the close of the earliest of the following dates:

      3. the date specified in the agreement as the date on which the agreement expires:
        1. the date on which an event occurs, being an event that is specified by the agreement as an event on the occurrence of which the agreement expires:
          1. the date that is the third anniversary of the agreement coming into force.

            1. Subsection (3) applies subject to section 53.