The Employment Contract Checklist

jmhMany employers use employment contracts that are out-dated, or may not have employment contracts for their staff at all. Are the employment contracts your business uses up to scratch?

Employers need to ensure their employment contracts comply with the current legal requirements. This means contracts need to be compliant with the National Employment Standards and the applicable Modern Award.

The National Employment Standards provide for minimum entitlements, such as hours of work, leave entitlements, flexible working arrangements and more.

For example, Business Pty Ltd is employing a new full-time administrative assistant. All Business Pty Ltd’s full-time staff work a 40 hour week. Business Pty Ltd has been using the same style employment contract since 2003. The employment contract states that the new administrative assistant must work 40 hours per week, and anything more than that is considered overtime.

Business Pty Ltd hasn’t realised that the National Employment Standards provide that full-time employees are to work a maximum of 38 hours per week. While an extra 2 hours work per week will likely be considered to be ‘reasonable additional hours’ which the employer may reasonably ask the employee to work, the appropriate award overtime provisions will apply to those 2 hours.

For example, if the new administrative assistant will be covered by the Clerks – Private Sector Award, then he or she will need to be paid time and a half for those extra 2 hours of work every week.

Business Pty Ltd needs to ensure that their employment contract is amended to meet these minimum requirements.

So, are the employment contracts your business uses up to scratch?

The Employment Law team at Everingham Solomons is well equipped to assist you with all your workplace relations issues from contracts of employment and policy updates to termination of employees, redundancy correspondence and warning letters because Helping You is Our Business.

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