Workplace Agreements Database

The Workplace Agreements Database (WAD) is maintained and operated by DEWR, and is the only one of its kind in Australia. It is a valuable source of workplace relations information and has the potential to contribute to workplace relations discussions by enhancing the evidence base. The database contains a wide range of conditions captured according to a range of coding rules, including:

• Wages information relating to all public and private federal enterprise agreements, which have been certified or approved since the introduction of Enterprise Bargaining principles in October 1991.
• Wages and conditions information for all federal enterprise agreements certified or approved since 1 January 1997.

There are currently 180,000 agreements in the database. An average of 6,000 agreements are added each year, and around 200 data items are recorded for each agreement. This includes general details outlined in the framework document about the agreement, such as:

• Sector
• Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) division and subdivision
• Duration
• Number of employees covered
• State or Territory
• Unions covered
• Awards covered

The database also contains details about conditions of employment contained within enterprise agreements. This includes:

• Individual flexibility arrangements
• Redundancy provisions
• Superannuation
• Leave entitlements
• Training
• Superannuation
• Penalty rate provisions
• Flexibility arrangements
• Productivity provisions

Before you request WAD data

Before you conduct any analysis of data, we recommend that you read the explanatory materials, including the framework document, which outlines the types of data in the dataset.

Our self-assessment aid lets you test your knowledge of and skills in using the Workplace Agreements Database dataset. We strongly recommend that you complete this before conducting more complex analysis of the full WAD dataset.

For further enquiries contact ebtrends@dewr.gov.au.

Data is available up to the most recent quarter of the Trends report.

Requesting customised data

If you have limited experience handling raw data, or you only need specific information from the dataset, we are able to create a custom dataset.

Please complete the custom data request form and email it to ebtrends@dewr.gov.au.

You will need to provide details about your research requirements and agree to confidentiality conditions and other terms. We will review requests on an individual basis, and we reserve the right to approve or decline data requests. Full terms and conditions of access to the dataset are included in the request form.

Custom datasets are provided in Excel (.xlsx) format by default, but can be provided in CSV format (.csv) if requested.

If you have experience in handling raw data, or require a large amount of information from the dataset, please see the section below.

Accessing the Full Workplace Agreements Dataset

The full Workplace Agreements Dataset is available to approved users for research purposes. The complete dataset allows approved users to conduct their own analytical research into workplace agreement matters.

To access the Full Workplace Agreements Database dataset, fill out the request form and email it to ebtrends@dewr.gov.au.

You will need to provide details about your research requirements and agree to confidentiality conditions and other terms. We reserve the right to approve or decline data requests. Full terms and conditions of access to the dataset are included in the request form.

We provide the dataset in CSV format only. It is extremely large, so you need to use a compatible software package such as SAS or Stata to access it.