5 things you
need to know
about
Employment Contract Drafting
- The first step in employment contract drafting is to work out what type of employee relationship you need. For example, will your employee be a permanent, fixed term, maximum term or casual employee? Additionally, will the employee’s role be covered by a Fair Work Australia modern award or enterprise agreement? While you can research this on the Fair Work Australia website, your employment lawyer will also be able to assist you with this as well as provide guidance on the best type of employment relationship for your business.
- Your lawyer will then draft the necessary employment contract. Employment law is a specialised area of the law. A well-drafted employment contract covers a range of matters, including salary, superannuation, leave entitlements, probation periods, confidentiality and work rights. Other matters that should be covered include ownership of intellectual property that the employee creates, termination of employment and obligations on termination, including non-compete, non-solicitation of staff and non-interference with business relationships.
- To mitigate legal risks and effectively manage your business operations, you need to provide employees with workplace policies and procedures. These can be set out in an employee handbook. Some key policies you should consider implementing include those dealing with the appropriate use of information technology (computers, internet and devices), sexual harassment and discrimination, workplace bullying, workplace health and safety and drug and alcohol use. It is important to have these policies in place and to inform your employees of them — first, to promote correct conduct, and second, as a defence if one of your employees breaches the law or a policy. You need to show that your business is not liable because you had policies in place and had trained your staff on these policies.
- Make sure that the employment contract and workplace policies and procedures are aligned and complement each other. This is very important. If the two documents don’t fit together, this can lead to confusion and potential disputes.
- Finally, it is important to remember that an employment contract doesn’t need to be overly complicated. Work with a lawyer who values plain English documentation so the rights and obligations are clear to both parties.
