The EA Health Check · by Carrington

Your enterprise agreement rarely says what everyone assumes.

A free tool can show you the award minimum. It can't actually open your agreement and read it. So it walks past the super set on an old number, the perk that only looks compulsory and the rule filed under the wrong heading. I read yours line by line against the award and the agreement it replaced. Then I hand you a short list of the clauses that don't say what your team thinks. Each one comes with the fix and what it's costing you.

EA Health Check
Enterprise agreement
3 problems · 4 checked and fine
Super. Set on an old number. Underpaid since the government rate went up.
Allowances. Pointed at the wrong rule on every line.
Redundancy. Checked it. All fine.
Plain findings first. The proof sits behind each one.
25 years in HR and workplace relations Mining, construction & manufacturing Read against the award and the old agreement Tells you what's wrong and what's fine
Your agreement doesn't change. Everything around it does. The government super rate goes up. Award pay rates rise every July. The agreement passes its use-by date and people can start bargaining again. Through all of it your agreement still reads the way it did the day it was signed. So the clause everyone relies on and the words actually on the page slowly drift apart. What you want is a short list of the clauses that no longer mean what your team thinks and what each one is now costing you.
What a free comparison misses

Lining your pay up against the award is the easy half.

A free tool checks your pay against the award minimum and stops there. It never opens the agreement and reads it. So it walks straight past the super set on an old number, the allowance pointed at the wrong rule and the perk that looks compulsory but is really optional. Those are the ones that cost money. They only show up if someone actually reads the thing.

Carrington Workforce RiskEA HEALTH CHECK · 3 PROBLEMS
Problem 1. Your super clause sets a rate then notes what it was on signing day. The rate has gone up since. Payroll is still paying the old one.
Problem 2. The rostered-day-off rule is printed under the probation heading. Easy to miss. It changes how days off and leave stack up.
Problem 3. The pay clause says a worker can be paid the higher rate rather than must. One word. Real money.
Behind each one: the clause, the maths and what it's costing you.
What it finds

The clauses that don't say what people think.

The same problems turn up again and again. None of them are hard to spot once you know to look. All of them are easy to miss if you don't.

Super

Super worked out on an old number

Your agreement sets super as the government rate plus a bit on top. Payroll types the total in once and leaves it. When the government rate goes up that number doesn't. Your super quietly falls behind and everyone ends up a little short.

Allowances

An allowance pointing at the wrong rule

An allowance says "see clause 12" but clause 12 is about something else. It looks tidy and official. Follow it and you pay the wrong amount. Sometimes on every line.

Where things live

A rule filed under the wrong heading

A rule about rostered days off gets printed under the heading about probation. Nobody thinks to look there so it gets missed. A rule you can't find is a rule you can't follow.

One word

"Can be" where everyone reads "must"

The agreement says a worker "can be" paid the higher rate. People read that as "has to be". They are not the same promise. That one word decides who is owed money.

Pay rates

Pay steps that ran out years ago

Agreements list pay rises for the first few years then go quiet long before the agreement ends. With nothing written for today people guess the current rate. Guesses drift.

The bigger picture

More than just the rulebook

Change someone's hours and you have also changed who is covering the night shift and what each hour really costs. That flow-on is usually the part that bites.

How it works

Six quick questions first. Then a proper read that tells you what's fine as well as what's not.

1

Six quick questions

Before I start I ask six short questions. Each one takes a quick call to payroll. They stop the report turning into a pile of guesses and let me give you a straight answer.

2

The close read

I go through the agreement line by line against the award and the old agreement it replaced. Where I can work a number out two ways I do both and check they match.

3

The big stuff first

You get a plain list with the biggest problems first. Each one shows the clause, the maths and what it's costing. I also tell you what I checked and found fine. Knowing your agreement is sound is worth paying for too.

Keeping it current

Your agreement sits still. I keep an eye on what moves around it.

Once I've been through your agreement I know its moving parts. For a yearly fee I keep watch and flag the moment one of them shifts. The government super rate changes. The award rates go up in July. Your agreement hits its use-by date. A new agreement gets approved. You get one plain heads-up the moment it matters. Enough to fix a stale clause before it's paid out.

Heads-upACTION
Your super clause is tied to the government rate. That went up on 1 July. Your clause didn't. Check what payroll is actually paying.
Your agreement uses the award rates. They rose on 1 July. Make sure the new ones are loaded.
One read, watched all year so the next change never turns into a back-pay bill.
Every number I give you comes with the clause it's based on and the maths behind it so it holds up if anyone pushes back. And when I can't be sure of something I say so and tell you what it would take to nail it down. I'd rather say I don't know than make a number up. That's the whole point.
Twenty-five years in HR and workplace relations across mining, construction and manufacturing.
Ryan Carrington, Principal
This is practical risk and compliance help to guide your decisions. It isn't legal advice. When something really needs a lawyer the report says so and points you there rather than pretending otherwise.
Engagement

Fixed fee per agreement and the first look is free.

From $1,200
Fixed fee per agreement
6 questions
Answered before I start
Wrong + fine
You hear both, not just problems
Optional watch
A yearly heads-up, priced on its own
The first look is free

Send me your agreement.

I'll spend twenty minutes with it and tell you the one or two clauses I'd look at first and why. That first look costs you nothing.

Email Ryan
The rest of the practice

Two more ways I keep workforce risk off your desk.

Pre-award contractor screen

Before you hand a contractor the job I check your shortlist for the workplace-relations risk that stops jobs on site.

See the contractor screen →

Award classification and salary tools

Put a role on the right award level then work out a weekly and yearly salary that clears the award across the whole roster.

See the award tools →