Preparing a one size fits all employment contract for your employees is expected as an employer. After all, you likely have more to worry about than modifying employment contracts in the onboarding process. However, it is essential to remember that employment contracts impose contractual obligations on both parties. An employment contract governs the working relationship between you and your employee through its terms. Hence, it is essential to serve both parties’ interests and ensure the contract accurately reflects the deal struck. This article will take you through some key reasons why you should have a lawyer review your employment contracts.
Address the National Employment Standards
When preparing an employment contract, you must comply with the Fair Work Act and the National Employment Standards (‘NES’). The NES are the minimum employment entitlements that all employees of the national workplace relations system employees are entitled to across Australia.
Failure to comply with the NES may result in severe penalties, whether this failure was intentional or not. Hence, ensuring your employment contracts are properly drafted to meet these minimum requirements will help avoid contravention of these standards and penalties.
Position Description and Duties
While not critical, it is good practice to include a position description in your employment contracts. This will ensure that both you and the employee are clear about their responsibilities and expectations. It is also a good idea to include a provision that allows you to request the employee fulfil certain duties outside their position description when it is reasonable to do so. Additionally, it may be necessary to modify the employee’s duties throughout the employer-employee relationship.
Having an employment lawyer review this section and correctly draft such provisions will ensure that the employee’s duties are clearly articulated and accurately communicated to the new employee. This can help avoid disputes later down the line about what the employee’s role constitutes and what their responsibilities are.
Continue reading this article below the formRestraint Clauses
Including restraint clauses in your employment contracts are also helpful. The two common types of restraint clauses are:
- non-competition clauses, which prevent ex-employees from working with direct competitors for a specific period or distance post-employment; and
- non-solicitation clauses, which prevent ex-employees from soliciting your clients and staff.
Although restraint clauses are a standard inclusion in employment contracts, restraint clauses are often difficult to enforce. This is because they must be reasonable in your industry to be enforceable. Nevertheless, having an employment lawyer carefully draft your restraint clauses will help ensure they can be applied in practice.
Ensure Terms Are Clear
The terms of your employment contract must be unambiguous. Vague contract terms can exist in all forms of contract. However, minimising ambiguity can be done by consulting an employment lawyer and seeking amendments to ambiguous terms.
Including dispute resolution procedures in your employment contract is also a good idea. This will ensure there is a mechanism for resolving any confusion about the nature of an employee’s contract. Again, having an employment lawyer draft or review such a provision can help minimise confusion about how this mechanism works and what the rights of both parties are to seek dispute resolution.
Critical Information
Finally, ensuring that your employment contract contains all standard information is essential. This includes addressing the:
- nature of the employment;
- relevant award or agreement the employee will be covered by;
- employment commencement date;
- location of employment;
- information employees must keep confidential;
- relevant workplace policies and procedures;
- notice period and termination;
- dispute resolution methods;
- employment probationary periods; and
- expected hours of work.
A professional review of your employment contract can help ensure all introductory provisions are met and addressed correctly.
As an employer, understand your essential employment obligations with this free LegalVision factsheet.
Key Takeaways
Employment contracts govern the working relationship between you and your employees through their terms, so it is essential to serve both parties’ interests. Some key reasons you should consider seeking assistance from an employment lawyer to prepare your employment contracts include:
- addressing the National Employment Standards (NES);
- correctly articulating the position’s duties and responsibilities;
- providing a reasonable restraint clause;
- having unambiguous terms; and
- providing all necessary details and information.
If you need a lawyer to review your employment contracts, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Employment contracts govern the working relationship between you and your employees through their terms. Hence, the contract must serve the interests of both parties. Seeking assistance from an employment lawyer to draft or review your employment contracts can help ensure all minimum requirements are met and that the terms of your employment contracts are not ambiguous.
Employment contracts govern the working relationship between an employer and an employee. Notably, you cannot amend employment contracts without your employee’s consent.
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