From 1 January 2010, modern awards operate with the National Employment Standards (NES) and regulate minimum terms for a specific industry or occupation.

 

In addition, they must also have a flexibility term, which means employers and employees are able to negotiate changes to meet their individual needs relating to issues specified in the clause.

 

Most modern awards contain transitional provisions which allow wages, loadings and penalty rates which are higher or lower than pre-existing conditions to be progressively phased in.

This can happen in one of two ways:

 

These transitional provisions can be found in a schedule at the end of the modern award document.

A small amount of modern awards (non-phased modern awards) contain no transitional provisions at all. Where there are no transitional provisions, the full terms of the modern award apply from 1 January 2010.