This report examines the content and impact of a new regime of rights for workplace union delegates following recent changes to the Fair Work Act.

The first part of the report focuses on the new rights themselves, including those provided specifically through legislation, how the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has applied those protections in the content of modern awards, and the framework for delegates’ rights provisions in enterprise agreements.

The second part then addresses the question of the impact of these new rights on pay, conditions, safety, union membership, workplace cooperation and productivity. It concentrates on the activities of union delegates and the relationship to cooperative and productive workplace relations (a focus of the main object of the Fair Work Act 2009). That is, the emphasis is on the way in which worker voice through workplace delegates affects workplace cooperation, productivity and related outcomes.

The third part looks more specifically at the new rights for paid union training, their implications and the way in which the effects will be contingent on union responses to them.