Employment contracts and conditions

Employment contracts

An employment contract should include:

• your duties
• how many hours you will work
• the days you will work
• where you will work
• how much you will be paid
• your employment status (for example, if you work full-time, casual or part-time)
• your employment conditions, including leave and other entitlements.

Make sure you keep a copy of any contract you sign. Once you sign a contract, it usually becomes legally binding.

There are only a few things that would not make a contract legally binding. These include:

• being forced to sign or agree to the contract against your will
• not being able to understand what you are agreeing to and the other person knows this.

A verbal agreement can also be legally binding, but the terms of a verbal contract are often harder to prove without written evidence. It’s always better to get a written contract so you can get advice about the terms and conditions before you sign.

Contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 or JobWatch for more information about employment contracts.

Employment conditions

There are a number of broader conditions that may affect your wages and conditions, including:

• federal awards setting out wage rates and conditions for groups of employees across industries
• minimum wages, which are set and adjusted by Fair Work Commission
• the National Employment Standards, which set out 1 minimum employment conditions that all permanent full-time and part-time employees are entitled to (certain conditions also apply to casual employees)
• enterprise agreements setting out conditions for a whole group of people in a workplace (rather than individual workers)
• collective agreements for groups of workers.

It can be confusing to work out what you’re entitled to. Contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94, JobWatch or your union for more information about your entitlements.

Other support

Find out how you can get other support for employment.