How important is employment contract in the workplace? The answer is simple as contract of employment governs how you interact in your job and how you do your day to day duties. It could see the difference as day and night depending on what’s written in this very important document.
If you don’t have a job in the traditional meaning of that word, unless you are unemployed, you could be a contractor or own your own business. Contractors fall under the contracts they signed and if you’re a business owner than all of your employees need to have this written up, verified and signed individually and in some cases collectively.
In many instances you will find that it is mostly employers who try to misinterpret the meaning of some clauses of this legal document that may have to do with working hours, entitlements such as holiday or sick pay or career’s leave. Although language by it’s nature is open for interpretation, most versions of workplace agreements are straightforward and easy enough for everyone to understand.
Employment agreement is at a core of every country’s workforce legal guidelines and it governs the rights and duties concerning business owners and their employees and even the independent contracting workers. Usually, together with specific employment contracts, a great deal of people are sheltered by group certified agreements or quite a few awards. In legal language, recruits are compelled by their contract of service or contract of employment and yet an independent contractor is tied to his or her so called contract for services. Casual employment contracts can also be covered by awards usually.
In contrast, independent contractors are normally not sheltered by mandatory minimum awards or related workplace agreements such as so named Workplace Agreements and more recently unveiled National Employment Standards. Building field and construction contracts together with the transportation sector are the fields in which contracts for service are extensively used.
General structure of every employment contract is its terms and conditions. On top of these agreements, letters of offer and arrangement, awards, job description and connected legal guidelines such is common law would make up the entire terms of anyone’s terms of employment. These conditions which are not always shown in every single employment contract declare numerous rights and obligations. One example for this is the requirement of all personnel and contractors to retain companies trade secrets discreet plus to workout an acceptable capacity of skill and attention while applying their occupation functions.
A significant fact worth mentioning is that every employment contract will need to at least follow if not exceed the principle ten worker’s entitlements as stated in the Australian National Employment Standards (NES) handbook. Each of these ten entitlements are located on Fair Work Australia web page.
So what comes about when the contract of employment is breached by either side? Just like any other contract, being a legislative record agreed upon by 2 or more parties, violation of employment contract usually ends in either party suing the other. The law suit would be seeking costs for breach of the workplace agreement. Most usual reasons for conflict are violation of statutory agreements where workers take strike and other industrial actions. The next one is in which a worker sues the employer for underpayment of paychecks or unfair dismissal. This is when a service of employment lawyers like McArdle legal (www.mcardlelegal.com.au) are required to bring the matter to a close.
As an employer, your legally binding employment contract with your employees will need to include conditions of employment segment and also include the contract start date and the finish date if appropriate. Various other rudimentary features such as termination notice intervals as well as redundancy entitlements should also be a vital part of this official document.
Workplace agreements can also be verbal in addition to what everyone associates employment contracts to be – written contracts. Every time you have an employee there is a sort of contract in place that specifies their duties. In case there isn’t a written document in existence, conditions that match closest to the state or national awards will be used in these cases. In the case of Australian industrial relations laws the body that governs employment law and national employment standards is Fair Work ombudsman and their employment contract page can be found here http://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/employment-contracts