<P> The National Employment Standards (NES) are the minimum entitlements of workers covered by federal awards in Australia under the Fair Work Act 2009, which generally took effect from 1 January 2010 . An award, employment contract, enterprise agreement or other registered agreement cannot provide for conditions that are less than the national minimum wage or the NES and they cannot be excluded . </P> <P> NES reconstitutes the industrial relations safety net . All employees are entitled to the ten National Employment Standards (NES), which are similar to the five Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard under WorkChoices . Additional occupation - or industry - specific conditions are protected through the new modern awards . There are 122 of these awards, compared to over 4000 under the previous system . </P> <P> The streamlining of the award system is one of the most significant aspects of the reforms . The government, motivated by a desire to streamline, simplify, and promote flexibility and productivity, set its goal as creating a new minimum standard that all parties in the employment relationship could understand, instead of the over-complicated system of decades past . </P> <P> Not all commentators agree that the Rudd government struck the right balance between simplification and appropriate protection . Baird and Williamson, for example, argue that the new minimum standards are detrimental to certain groups, particularly women, because the new awards fail to adequately cover women working in social services, call centres and the health sector . </P>

Who do the national employment standards apply to