Untangling the employee contract: employee entitlements

Australia's industrial relations laws are complex, and navigating the area of an employee contract can be tricky. However, there are some minimum employee entitlements that you should be aware of to make sure your employees feel happy and valued.

"Providing your staff with the correct pay and conditions for their type of work is the first step towards ensuring employee satisfaction and reducing staff turnover," says Angela Giacoumis from Careerlink. 

Minimum rates of pay

Under federal workplace laws, there is a minimum wage that applies to all workers over the age of 21 (excluding trainees). However, if a particular type of work falls under a pay scale, workers are entitled to receive no less than the minimum rate set by that pay scale. 

What's a pay scale?

Employee entitlements are generally split into two areas: pay scales, which cover pay information, and awards, which cover other conditions of employment, such as leave entitlements and penalty rates. 

A pay scale covers basic employee entitlements such as hourly pay rates, casual loading, and frequency of pay (e.g. weekly, fortnightly or monthly). It also covers pay rates for juniors, apprentices and trainees, and rates for different job classifications.

Each pay scale covers a different type of work, based on industry, occupation, state, region or certain employers.

Leave entitlements

Under the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard all permanent employees are entitled to:

• four weeks paid annual leave
• 10 days paid personal leave (including sick leave and carer's leave), with provision for an additional two days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion and an additional two days of paid compassionate leave per occasion
• 52 weeks of unpaid parental leave (including maternity, paternity and adoption leave).

Public holidays

Under federal workplace law, the right not to work on public holidays is protected. An employer may ask an employee to work on a public holiday, but the employee has the right to refuse the request if they have 'reasonable grounds' for doing so.

Superannuation

Employers have an obligation to pay superannuation contributions on behalf of all their eligible employees. These contributions are in addition to salaries and wages.

The minimum superannuation contribution is 9 per cent of the employee's earnings base. Generally, employers have to pay superannuation for employees who are:

• aged between 18 and 70 and paid $450 (before tax) or more in a calendar month
• under 18 years of age and earn $450 or more (before tax) in a calendar month, and work more than 30 hours in a week.

Find out more

These are just some of the basic employee entitlements you should know about. To find out more about the entitlements that apply to your workplace with an employee contract, contact an employment services consultant today.