PROPOSED INDUSTRY AGREEMENT 2023-2026

MEMBER UPDATE

ADIA has worked for over two decades to ensure that the market and social research industry has a stable workplace relations system that is fair and equitable to both employers and employees.

New Member Ballot for the proposed Industry Agreement 2023-2026

The Australian Data and Insights Association (ADIA) and United Workers Union (UWU) reached an agreement in mid-2022 on the terms of a new multi-employer enterprise agreement to replace the expired Industry Agreement 2017-2020. This new Industry Agreement was endorsed by an online ballot of employees and then submitted to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for approval.

The terms of the new Agreement commenced on 1 September 2022, with pay rises passed on to employees by ADIA companies in July 2022 and July 2023, despite the new Industry Agreement still awaiting approval by the FWC.

After attending a conference with the FWC to discuss a range of technical matters the Commission had raised, ADIA and the UWU agreed to update the proposed Industry Agreement to reflect recent changes to the Fair Work Act, to rerun the ballot process and resubmit the revised Agreement to the FWC once that occurs. (Note that recent changes to the Act provide improved flexibility for agreements of this type.)

If approved by a new vote of employees, ADIA and the UWU will seek to have the proposed Agreement approved by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) as a multi-enterprise agreement under the Fair Work Act 2009. It would then be a three-year, not four, Agreement, as a year has elapsed since agreement was initially reached between the parties.

Only those members who are signatories (which includes field and in-house recruiting organisations) to the new Agreement are required to vote. 

Background

ADIA has been instrumental in preserving the UWU and ADIA Market and Social Research Industry Award as a separate Award under a multi-enterprise Agreement. This prevented the market and social research sector from being brought within a general private-sector clerical modern award – an outcome that would have increased wage costs across the industry.

The Market (and Social) Research Industry Award was created in 1990 by the (then) Australian Industrial Relations Commission with the involvement of our Association and the union. A new Modern Award, the Market and Social-Research Industry Award, came into effect on 1 January 2010 and has been updated periodically by the Fair Work Commission. The Modern Award covers virtually all market and social research undertaken in Australia.

The Modern Award has also underpinned a series of multi-business enterprise agreements (Industry Agreements) negotiated between AMSRO (now ADIA) and the union representing market and social research employees, now called the United Workers’ Union (UWU).

The Industry Agreement sets minimum pay rates and conditions for market research and social research employees employed by ADIA members. As a condition of membership, all ADIA organisations are required to comply with the UWU-ADIA Market and Social Research Industry Agreement 2022-2026 and any subsequent revisions.

For further information, ADIA employers can contact Andrew Maher, Partner, CIE Legal, at 0403 399 237 or Sarah Campbell, CEO, at 0460 012 092.