QUESTION:
I am building an Employment Contract for my employee. She’s been with me for 6-years (hence the anxiety). I notice there’s no reference to the Award provisions under which she is employed.
Does your Employment Contract override the Award provisions? Should not your contract compliment them? Where do specific employment conditions, eg pay, hours, etc… appear?
ANSWER:
The Employment Contact that you are building always remain subservient to mandatory requirements, such as:
- Minimum Conditions of Employment
- Awards
- Modern Awards(The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) consolidated awards into occupations to simplify minimum employment entitlements. Most industries and professions are subject to ‘Modern Awards’.)
Our Employment Contract does not specifically mention the current relevant award. Instead, it adopts whatever Award applies from year to year. It ensures that each Employment Contact you build with us remains up-to-date – whatever the changes to the Industrial Relations law.
A Legal Consolidated Employment Contract never goes out of date.
The pay, hours and other conditions are in the Employment Contract. They can be further amended by an exchange of emails from time to time – particularly when the rates and laws change. Where they conflict with a mandatory law your Employment Contract is ‘read down’ so that the mandatory law is not breached. You can build your Employment Contracts at our law firm’s website here. You can read a complete sample of our Employment Contract together with the explanation here.
See also:
- Contractor vs Employee – which is correct?
- Disaster can happen with no employment termination clause
