As you no doubt already know, the National Employment Standards (NES) commence on 1 January 2010. The NES will provide minimum statutory employment conditions for employees in the national system (and Victoria).
Some of these entitlements do already exist – like parental leave, annual leave, personal/carer’s leave and maximum weekly hours – but some are new. These new entitlements include the right to request flexible working arrangements, community service leave and notice of termination and redundancy pay.
But these entitlements are not set in stone!
If you wish, you can reach an agreement with individual employees about NES entitlements.
For example, if your employees are award/agreement free, you can make a written agreement with them to:
- cash out accrued paid annual leave in excess of 4 weeks;
- provide extra annual leave (e.g. 8 weeks per annum) in exchange for them foregoing an equivalent amount of pay;
- average weekly hours over a specified period (not more than 6 months); or
- work on a public holiday and take another day off instead.
Caution: If you are dealing with an employee covered by a modern award, you need to check whether it makes provision for making these kinds of agreements. A modern award may also make provision for an agreement to cash out paid personal/carer’s leave.
Next week, find out if the extra hours you require your employees to work are reasonable… if they’re not, you could be held liable!
For more details on how you can make sure your business is prepared for all the Fair Work Act changes, take a 14 day FREE trial of the Employment Law Practical Handbook. Click here to find out more!
Regards,
Charles Power
Editor-in-Chief
Employment Law Practical Handbook
Tags: annual leave, employees, modern award, National Employment Standards, national system, NES entitlements, parental leave, personal leave, redundancy pay, statutory employment conditions, Victoria
