Nearly all employees in Australia are protected by the National Employment Standards (referred to as the NES). These are 10 (ten) bare minimum rights and conditions for all working full-time or part-time inside the countrywide system. Most of the National Employment Standards in addition apply to casual people. The National Employment Standards incorporate all the people in the national workplace relations system. Casual workers only get some of the entitlements and these are:
– 2 days unpaid carer’s leave and 2 days unpaid compassionate leave for each occasion
– highest possible weekly working hours
– community service leave (excluding paid court service)
– time off work on public holidays except if it’s acceptable to ask you to work
If you’ve been employed continuously and systematically in the course of 12 months and there’s an anticipation of continuous work you’re additionally entitled to inquire about flexible working measures and parent leave. Flexible working arrangements comprise changing hours of work, changing patterns of work, shifting the region of work (for instance working from home).
You’re also most certainly protected by an award or agreement. These would be legal paper work which lay out what precisely your employer must give you and what you have to do as a worker. Your award or agreement will show you things such as your bare minimum wages, if you should be given penalty rate with regards to working nights, Saturday and Sundays or public holidays, the lowest range of hours per shift you can be scheduled and paid for, if you should attain an allowance for doing some actions, your hours of work, including the lunch and rest breaks you should obtain when you work.
Two of the National Employment Standards entitlements include all full-time and part-time workers even when they’re not protected by the nationwide workplace relations system or otherwise.
These would be:
– notice of termination and
– parent leave and associated entitlements (this is also applicable to casuals who have been employed on a regular and complete basis for not less than 12 months and with an expectation of continuing employment).
Signing other kinds of agreements or contracts
If you’re asked to sign any form of paper regarding your salary and conditions, be certain you read through it carefully and comprehend it prior to the time you sign. Additionally make a copy for your records. If you’re under eighteen your parents or a guardian may have to sign it for you.
Even if you sign a written contract, you’re still blanketed by the minimum salary and conditions within the applicable award, contract and the NES. A contract can’t make you worse off than your bare minimum legal entitlements.