Health checks aren’t always fun, but they are important.
Over the past couple of years, there have been a range of changes and reforms that mean your employment contracts probably need a recent health check if they haven't had one. We review many contracts in practice for a range of reasons, and here are some of the recurring problems we see. If your organisation hasn’t reviewed your contracts for any of these issues, now is a great time to do so – particularly before EOFY and salary review periods.
Contracts referring to the wrong award – we see a lot of contracts that refer to awards for non-award covered staff, or the wrong award for award covered employees. Are you using a Clerks Award template for everyone in the office regardless of what they do? It’s more common than you think.
Annualised salary arrangements – if you’re using annualised salary arrangements for award-covered staff, these could probably use a check in. Particularly after the Recent Federal Court decision in FWO v Woolworths. We’ve written about this in more detail on our website here.
Guarantees of Annual Earnings – Have they kept up with the high income threshold? Are they current and properly drafted? Non-compliant guarantees can offer a false sense of security for award covered staff, so it’s a good idea to make sure they’re still doing what they’re meant to.
Pay secrecy – The prohibition on pay secrecy clauses has been in place for a while now, but if you haven’t updated your contract and confidentiality clauses they may be out of date. Deed of release / settlement agreement templates too. It’s worthwhile taking a look.
Termination provisions – ensuring termination clauses are appropriately worded, allowing for pay in lieu of all or part of the notice period and providing flexibility to change the employee’s duties during the notice period, or put the employee on gardening leave.
Workplace surveillance clauses – ensuring they meet the requirements of legislation in the right jurisdiction. Watch this space as Victoria has said it will introduce a Workplace Surveillance Act too.
Working from home - Are your location of work clauses and working from home arrangements up to date? Do they allow your business the flexibility it needs to manage WFH arrangements? See our WFH article for more detail here.
Right to disconnect - Have you dealt with the right to disconnect appropriately in your contracts? Does it reflect your business's policies and procedures accurately?
Aside from technical issues, it’s often worthwhile to take a look at contracts to make sure they match the organisational culture you’re trying to achieve, are clear and easy to understand, and truly reflect the working arrangements for your staff.
If you’d like to have a chat, please reach out.