Employment Contract – Casual Employee (Award or Common Law)

Employment Contract - Casual Employee (Award or Common Law) template standard terms of employment

Standard Employment Terms – Casual Employment Contract (Award or Common Law)

What is an employment contract?  

An employment contract is an agreement between an employer and employee that sets out terms and conditions of employment. A contract can be in writing or verbal, however it is advisable that standard terms are confirmed in writing to avoid any doubt between the parties.

Can an employment contract provide for less than the legal minimums?

An employment contract cannot provide for less than the legal minimum set out in:

• the National Employment Standards (NES)
• awards, enterprise agreements or other registered agreements that may apply.

All employees are covered by the NES, regardless of whether they’ve signed an employment contract. An employment contract can’t make employees worse off than their minimum legal entitlements.

What do the standard employment contract terms cover?

The HR Expert standard terms for casual employees (covering Award casual employees and/or common law casual employees) is a useful document to use when hiring new employees.

The employment contract standard terms inform new employees about the terms and conditions of their employment with your business, some of these terms include:

• parties
• employee duties
• leave
• travel arrangements
• confidential information
• post-termination obligations
• overpayments
• governing law, and
• definitions

The HR Expert employment contract standard terms are a generic template of terms that can be given to all casual employees covered by an Award or Common Law at your workplace.

The standard terms should be given to your new casual employees along with a letter of engagement. Once you have received the signed standard terms and letter of engagement from the employee, return a copy to them, and keep the original. This ensures you both have a record of what has been agreed.

The letter of engagement will contain specific information, including:

• pay
• hours of work
• shift penalties and loadings (if applicable)
• leave entitlements, and
• notice of termination of employment.

Minimum entitlements can come from a range of sources including industrial instruments (e.g. an award or an enterprise agreement) and legislation, such as the Fair Work Act 2009.

You should use these standard terms, and the information contained within it, at your own discretion and risk. You accept as a condition of your use of HR Expert and the information contained therein that you will make no claim for any loss, damage or expense that may arise from your use of documentation, or your reliance on any of the information contained within it.