Employment Contract [Australia]

The "Gold Standard" for Employment Contracts in Australia

Leap-frog over the minefield that is employment law in Australia with this full-form, top-tier quality Employment Contract!

It has been meticulously drafted to standards that meet or even exceed those of the largest Australian and international law firms and sets the “gold standard” for employment contracts in Australia.

Use this for everything from a casual assistant position to a high-level professional or executive role – it seamlessly adapts to suit full-time, part-time and casual employees at any level.

Our ingenious online questionnaire gives you full control over the employee’s duties, places and hours of work, remuneration structure, termination rights, etc and provides you with succinct but helpful guidance along the way.

You can easily add sophisticated terms like confidentiality obligations, intellectual property ownership provisions and even non-solicitation/non-compete clauses in just a few clicks.

Recent Fair Work Legislation ➲ Fixed-Term Employment Contract Amendments

Effective 6 December 2023, there are noteworthy changes to the Fair Work legislation concerning fixed-term Employment Contracts.

For more information about recent changes in Australian Employment Law please read our blog article:

Australian Employment Law Bulletin [2023] ➲ 7 Cherry-Picked Changes (Some Radical)

This automated Employment Contract has been updated to assist you to deal with these recent amendments.

Key Changes You Need to Know:

1️⃣ New Limits on Contract Duration:

The era of extended fixed-term contracts is shifting.

From 6 December these contracts are now limited to a maximum of two years, with other restrictions relating to renewals and extensions.

This change aims to enhance job security and reduce uncertainty.

2️⃣ Restriction on Consecutive Contracts:

An important alteration is the limitation on successive fixed-term contracts.

An employee can no longer be engaged in more than two consecutive contracts for identical or similar roles, barring specific exceptions.

This move is designed to prevent the potential exploitation of short-term contracts.

3️⃣ Mandatory Information Statements:

Compliance with information dissemination becomes more stringent.

Every employee, whether on a fixed term or otherwise, MUST receive the Fair Work Information Statement.

Furthermore, those on fixed-term contracts require an additional Fixed Term Contract Information Statement.

Includes Automated Letter of Offer

This legal document includes the option of creating a customised letter of offer for your new employee.

Minimum Conditions of Employment

The National Workplace Relations System, which was introduced in 2009 by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), sets out a range of minimum employment standards that apply generally to all private sector employees throughout Australia.

If any of your choices are less favourable to the Employee than any mandatory minimum conditions of employment that apply by law, then those mandatory minimum conditions will apply.

If you are not sure what minimum employment standards apply, please contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

Does a Modern Award apply?

Find whether the employment is covered by a modern award at www.fairwork.gov.au

Does an Enterprise Agreement apply?

Check whether your workplace has an enterprise agreement at www.fwc.gov.au/agreements

Fair Work Information Statement

All Employers in the National Workplace Relations System are required to give every new employee a copy of the standard form Fair Work Information Statement before, or otherwise as soon as possible after, they start their job.

✅ Obtain your copy of the Fair Work Information Statement from the Fair Work Ombudsman here.

Tax File Number Declaration by Employee

✅ The Employee must provide a completed Tax File Number Declaration Form to the Employer within 28 days of commencing employment.

❌ Otherwise the Employer will be required to withhold the highest rate of tax plus the Medicare levy from all payments made to the Employee.

If you need help with income tax withholding requirements, please contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

Leave Entitlements

The Employee's leave entitlements are governed by law and not by the Employment Contract.

Accordingly, this agreement does not include a statement of the Employee's leave entitlements.

If you are unsure of what leave entitlements apply, please contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

Working From Home Arrangements

Intuitive configuration of Work from Home arrangements into the Employment Contract.

Designed for use with our updated Employment Handbook which now includes a Working from Home Policy.

Workers Compensation Insurance

The Employee's entitlement to workers compensation insurance is governed by law and not by the Employment Contract.

Accordingly, this agreement does not make any specific provisions in this regard.

Please contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

Salary Sacrificing Arrangements

This agreement contemplates that salary sacrificing arrangements may be adopted if agreed to by the parties, but does not provide for any specific salary sacrificing arrangements or non-monetary benefits (eg, a company car, subsidised meals, laptop, mobile phone and/or other work-related items, etc).

To incorporate any specific salary sacrificing arrangements or non-monetary benefits into this employment contract, please contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

Incentive Schemes

This agreement permits the inclusion of a discretionary bonus clause but does not contemplate that the Employee will receive other incentive entitlements such as shares, options, etc.

Such schemes can be a powerful way to incentivise employees, but the tax implications of such schemes can be tricky.

If you wish to establish an employee incentive scheme, you should contact our Legal Team to seek additional advice.

We recommend you consider our expertly drafted Employee Option Plan.

Employer-friendly Contract

Please note that this agreement is generally an "employer-friendly" document, meaning that - although this legal document gives you a huge amount of control over the terms of the contract, and we always seek to advance commercially reasonable positions - the Employment Contract is otherwise drafted primarily from the perspective of the Employer.

If you are creating this legal document as the prospective Employee, you should contact our Legal Team to obtain independent legal advice regarding prospective changes to the Employment Contract before executing the agreement.

Employee or Independent Contractor?

➲ The High Court's Radical Change to the Rules [Current Law]

Introducing Certainty into the Categorisation of Employment Status

As a result of two recent High Court of Australia decisions it is now much easier to engage workers as independent contractors by using a well drafted written contract even if:

⚓️ Under the longstanding old rules for determining employment status they would have been clearly categorised as employees; and

⚓️ Have no business of their own.

Traditionally the substance of the working arrangement took precedence over the agreed contractual terms such that the substance or reality of the working arrangement could override the contractual arrangements.

From now on, the majority of the High Court have effectively flipped the old rules on their head, at least where there is a written contract.

The written contract is now the governor of employment status, not the substance of the working arrangement.

This is regardless of whether the worker has their own business or was in a weaker bargaining position at the time the contract was executed.

Consequently, what may have previously been held to an employee working arrangement is likely to be upheld as a valid independent contractor agreement.

Importantly, this radical change provides certainty around this previously grey area of worker contracting where an employer had to be conservative out of necessity as they could have been found at anytime to have been retrospectively engaging workers as employees, with potentially devastating financial consequences ensuing if the reclassification was applied retrospectively across their entire workforce.

Further reading: Australian Employment Law Bulletin [2023] ➲ 7 Cherry-Picked Changes (Some Radical)

Individuals in Western Australia

This Employment Contract assumes that the Employee will be covered by the National Workplace Relations System.

Employers who are individuals in Western Australia are not part of the National Workplace Relations System.

Accordingly, you can use this document as a first draft only, however you must contact our Legal Team to seek legal advice about the minimum conditions of employment that will apply under the state workplace relations laws in Western Australia.