Unlock the Power of eSignature Lawfulness for Contract of Employment

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foreign contract is a contract between an employer and someone who is going to be working for them on effectively a shift by shift basis so it's someone who will usually be rostered for a particular job role and that rostering might vary from week to week depending on their availability and the type of the amount and type of work that the employer has for them there's quite a few benefits to being on a casual contract I think it really depends on your lifestyle as well I think casual employment really benefits a lot of people who don't want that rigid structure you know they might be a student they might travel a lot they might just want shifts that suit them they get the ability to knock them back but they also usually get like a loaning amount or paid on the minimum wage amount so they um you know get a little bit more this compensates because they don't get things such as annual leave sick leave things like that a full-time employment contract is a contract between an employer and someone who's going to be a permanent employee in their organization now a permanent employee doesn't mean they have to work there forever it just means that they're entitled to the ongoing expectation of that employment unless something else happens in the employment relationship and there is a resignation or termination under the law permanent Employment contract tends to be more detailed than a casual contract and it will include Provisions around the rate of pay which will either be a salary of remuneration or it still might be calculated on an hourly rate basis it will specify where they work the hours that they're expected to work which for a permanent full-time would usually be 38 hours a week but permanent employees can also be part-time and so if you're going to be part-time you can expect to work the same regular part-time hours each week and they should be specified in a contract permanent contracts may also include additional terms around added incentives such as bonus packages or other benefits and may also contain post-employment restraints part-time employment is a permanent position with an employee usually and it's an agreement between the employer and the employee and it's where they work part-time so instead of working full-time hours which is typically between 38 to maybe to 42 hours they will work part-time and that can really be anywhere from you know usually you know it can be as little as three hours a week to full time so it's great for people who want permanence and they want um you know an ongoing you know permanent roster but they can't commit to full-time work but they also don't want to be a casual and never have guaranteed work permanent employees whether you're full-time or part-time All crew leave entitlements both so there's several different leave entitlements that are provided for under the fair work act but the main ones are personal leave which is often referred to as sick leave which is where someone is entitled to be paid if they're unwell and unable to come to work for a certain amount of days in a year typically under the work act that is 20 days but some awards can provide for more so can Enterprise agreements and and particular employment contracts so employees should always be aware how many leave days they're entitled to the other type of leaves that employees can access is annual leave which again can vary depending on the industry and the contract terms but it's typically four weeks of annual leave under the fair work act and that is accrued on a pro rata basis so if for a permanent employee who's full-time they're entitled to the full four weeks for a part-time they're entitled to four weeks but based on their part-time hours a fixed term contract is an agreement between an employer and an employee and you're employed for a fixed term so this could be uh you know six months a year it's it shouldn't be longer than two years and the reason for this is it's quite common um we've seen like trade Industries and places um where there's a project so they want someone to be employed for just that specific amount of time to do that one or two things and then they're not needed after so that's usually what a fixed term contract is maximum term contract really similar except it's as it sounds for the maximum term and that might be because there might be a project and they don't know how long it's going to go for so they might just say well look it's going to be about 12 months so to be a Max 12 month contract but there'll be termination rights usually going both ways potentially in the middle there somewhere an employee who's employed on a fixed or maximum term contract basis still has the same entitlements that a permanent employees is entitled to so during that term that they're employed for they still accrue annual leave and personal leave and can still take that leave during that term um I suppose the only difference from a leave basis is that a fixed term or maximum term employee would generally not expect to be accruing long service leave because the nature of the engagement is it really has a an expiry date pay secrecy Clauses in employment contracts are no longer permitted due to the recent changes in the fair work act that means that employers cannot require their employees to keep their pay confidential from say their colleagues that may have quite serious impact among Industries and we expect to see some types of discrimination claims coming out of that as a result of employees starting to talk among themselves about the rates of pay that they're all receiving it's important to seek legal advice when drafting an employment contract because we see so many contracts go wrong an employer needs to cover all the important key commercial terms of the employment Arrangement which might include things that can be a bit tricky like bonuses and whether those bonuses should be discretionary or whether they are a fixed part of the remuneration package post-employment restraints are another key aspect of employment contracts that are really difficult and we see a lot of employers get them wrong it's important to consider what restraints you would ideally like and then also give some consideration to what may be reasonable considering the employee's role their level of experience their length of tenure within your organization because there really isn't a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to post-employment restraints ultimately it depends on whether that's considered to be a significant change or an insignificant change if it's if it's a significant change to the roster such as the days or hours worked then you do need to consult with the employee before going ahead and changing the roster however if it's an insignificant change such as a slight variation to the start and finish times on a shift and then there's no such consultation obligations that need to be satisfied before that change can be made what's important here is to make sure that there's kind of an equal consideration between the parties so employees have lots of other things going on in their lives so it could be quite reasonable for an employee to reject a potential change they'll be quite major for example if it's changing it to a day where they have to drop off the kids to school for an example and what you would really want to make sure what you're doing there as an employer is that you're taking it into a reasonable consideration and you're really having a genuine discussion with that employee and from an employee perspective what you're really wanting to look at is make sure that you're not just rejecting it because you know you really like that shift that you have and you don't want to change think about it and have like a genuine one-on-one discussion with your employer about the changes that are going on above award a rate of pays it sort of speaks for itself it's every employment award contains a minimum rate of pay in it and that's a rate of pay that an employee can't be paid less than than performing the duties that they are an above award rate of pay is just any rate higher than that so while an award says I have to pay you this much and I can't pay you any less I can still pay you more than that if I'd like to there's some key considerations that you'd want to keep in mind is laying it out and writing one that you're paying the above award uh to why is what you want to give me look at why are they getting paid above that award and also being aware of the fact that as a small business it might not be something that's sustainable in the long run to keep that above the award pay the first and foremost consideration when someone is taking excessive sick leave is that an employer can't take adverse or adverse action or take bad action against the employee for taking sick leave that includes the employer can't typically terminate an employee for taking sick leave unless they have been on a period of sick leave that's longer than three months consecutively or that they've been on a period of sick leave that adds up to three months over a 12-month period so they're quite restricted with you can be left in quite a tough position if your employees on an extended period of sick leave there's not a lot you can do about it often so workplace policies and procedures are basically an internal guide and kind of contractual obligation for the employer to follow on how everything is run and operated and what these policies and procedures do is basically set out how that employment abides by their requirements that are set out in the fair works and under the relevant Awards potentially that that employment is part of there is legislation in Australia that governs these policies and procedures the fair work Act is the first and most important legislation that's relevant there's also work health and safety rules not only within the fair work act but in its own separate legislation in each state which sets out policies and procedures that employers should refer to for their employees I'm sure it's something that people say all the time but it's important that you make sure these things are up to date and they're in line with current standards for example at the moment the fair work Act is undergoing quite extensive changes for the first time in a while and that's had quite a massive change on the obligations on both employers and employees within the workplace