It is important that businesses abide by correct employee relation procedures to mitigate risk and the potential negative impact on staff, reputation and brand. Likewise, employees need to know about their rights and entitlements should there be any hiccups in the employment relationship.

At Pearce Webster Dugdales we work with our clients to identify effective and commercial ways to navigate the Employment Law space, including to advise both employers and employees about Employment Contracts, termination of employment (including redundancy and unfair dismissal), flexible working arrangements and workplace rights (including adverse action).

Please feel free to contact one of our experienced lawyers to discuss your Employment Law matter.

NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS (NES)

The minimum entitlements an employee must receive are:

  • Maximum weekly hours of work – 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
  • Requests for flexible working arrangements – some employees who have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months can request flexible working arrangements, such as changes to hours, patterns or locations of work.
  • Conversion from casual employment – casual employees who have worked for their employer for 12 months need to be offered the option to convert to full-time or part-time employment by their employer.
  • Parental leave and related entitlements – up to 12 months unpaid leave for every employee, plus a right to request an additional 12 months unpaid leave.
  • Annual leave – 4 weeks paid leave per year (pro rata for part-time workers), plus an additional week for some shift workers.
  • Personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave and unpaid family and domestic violence leave – 10 days paid personal/carer’s leave (pro rata for part-time workers), 2 days unpaid carer’s leave as required, 2 days compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) as required, and 5 days unpaid family and domestic violence leave.
  • Community service leave – unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service, with an entitlement to be paid for up to 10 days for jury service.
  • Long service leave (LSL) – in Victoria, an employee can request to take LSL at any time after 7 years’ continuous employment.
  • Public holidays – a paid day off on a public holiday except where reasonably requested to work.
  • Notice of termination and redundancy pay – up to 4 weeks’ notice of termination (5 weeks if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years of continuous service) and up to 12 weeks redundancy pay, both based on length of service.
  • Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement and Casual Employment Information Statement – Employers have to give every new employee a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement before, or as soon as possible after, they start their new job, and at the same time need to give every new casual employee a Casual Employment Information Statement.