Fairness test failures skyrocket

The number of workplace agreements that flunk the fairness test has gone through the roof, with 442 agreements being put out of action in September compared to just five in August.

And that number could soon climb much, much higher. By the end of September, 3762 agreements were set to fail the test unless they were brought up to scratch by employers within 14 days, more than twice the 1070 August figure.

Just over 31,000 workplace agreements were lodged in September, slightly down on the 34,550 lodged the previous month.

The Workplace Authority has also managed to reduce the workplace agreement backlog from 12,479 at the end of August to 4629 by the end of September.

As a consequence, however, an extra 11,850 requests for further information have been sent to employers. There are now a total 56,601 workplace agreements on the “waiting for further information” pile at the Workplace Authority.

The Workplace Authority admitted this week that more than 3000 employers have failed to comply with the Workplace Authority’s requests for information so far.