Whilst the mining companies may be breathing a sigh of relief after the government’s backdown on the resources super tax, many Australian businesses still face uncertain times.

An recent article in The Australian newspaper described the potential threat of a GFC 2 resulting from the debt-ridden economies of Europe.

At HRwisdom we are very much focussed on being proactive and taking positive planning steps (and we’ll talk more soon about some excellent employee retention tools you can use).

However, for those businesses in Australia which may be suffering or trying to manage their costs very closely, we have put together an excellent free HR resource which explains:

How To Manage Redundancies Without Destroying All Employee Goodwill

In this HRwisdom resource, we have turned to industry expert Jacqui Alder to offer practical advice to businesses facing this difficult issue.

In this redundancy information we look at:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of offering voluntary redundancies versus conducting forced redundancies/involuntary redundancies?
• What are the steps involved in the redundancy process?
• How to select people for involuntary redundancy?
• How to communicate throughout the redundancy process?
• Should you march someone out immediately when making them redundant?
• How can you implement redundancies without destroying all employee goodwill?
• A case study.

You can access the information here:  redundancy information

Kind regards,

HRwisdom

HRwisdom have added a new Contract of Employment template to the HRwisdom Library.

The 21 page document includes explanatory notes to help you create a written employment contract to suit your requirements and circumstances.

We have also included additional employment contract information on this HRwisdom Blog post to help you understand some of the key issues.

The employment contract template can be used by all employers throughout Australia, except the following excluded employers:

• non-constitutional corporation employers in Western Australia
• State public sector employers; and
• Local Government employers — except in Tasmania

The contract is suitable for full-time and part-time employees of all employers who can use the contract. The contract is not intended to apply to casual employees or independent contractors.

Employment Contract Coverage

The contract considers coverage of the following matters:

• nature and status of employment
• reason for the contract
• commencement date
• employer details
• employee details
• position
• general details
• probationary/qualifying period
• reporting relationship
• location of employment
• hours of work
• remuneration
• return of property
• deductions
• confidential information
• policies and procedures
• superannuation
• period of notice and
• termination.

You may also consider amending your contract to reflect your position on optional clauses concerning:

• compensation for all legal entitlements
• guarantee of annual earnings
• annualised salary
• intellectual property
• reporting lines
• non-cash benefits
• bonus and incentive payments
• performance review
• salary review and post employment obligations
• company credit card
• mobile phone
• laptop
• performance
• driver’s licence
• drugs and alcohol
• uniforms
• continuing education
• leave
• public holidays; and
• resignation from offices held.

Particular matters to consider:

Circumstances for making the contract

The reason for making a contract of employment will differ depending on the circumstances. This will, in turn, affect a number of clauses. So, for example, a new employee will be entitled to either accept or reject the contract of employment. However, an existing employee who does not receive any benefits from signing the contract (eg additional remuneration) may decline to enter the contract.

An employer who is using the contract for award covered or enterprise agreement covered employees may wish to supplement the contract with an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA). Those employers may also give consideration to utilising optional clauses such as:

• compensation for all legal entitlements
• guarantee of annual earnings
• annualised salary

HRwisdom Library members should be aware that it is not possible to ‘contract out’ of an industrial instrument using a contract of employment. Accordingly, if an employee is entitled to minimum conditions of employment in accordance with an industrial instrument, an employer should comply with the relevant industrial instrument.

Such a clause seeks to offset an employee’s total remuneration against any entitlement the employee may have under any law or industrial instrument. Adopting this approach will not extinguish an employer’s obligations under an industrial instrument or alter the fact that technically an industrial instrument was been breached, nor can it protect an employer from prosecution and imposition of a penalty for that breach. However, it does give the company good grounds to argue that an employee has been compensated in full for all entitlements and the employee should not be permitted to ‘double recover’ the amounts.

HRwisdom Library members should therefore carefully consider whether to use such a clause and whether full compliance with the award, use of an IFA, enterprise agreement, giving a guarantee of annual earning or complying with an annualised salary provision of an award is a better option.

Guarantee of annual earnings

Rather than complying with the terms of an award, an employer can instead provide a written ‘guarantee of annual earnings’ to an employee. Such a clause can only be offered to employees who are covered by a modern award and earn more than the high income threshold (presently $108,300 per annum), but doesn’t include certain remuneration elements.

The guarantee means that the employer agrees to pay the employee no less than $108,300 per annum (indexed annually and exclusive of superannuation and contingent elements such as bonuses and commissions) during the ‘guarantee period’ and in exchange for that guarantee, the relevant modern award that covers the employee ceases to apply.

The ‘guarantee period’ must be for 12 months or more, unless the employee is employed for a period which is less than 12 months. No more than 14 days can elapse from the date the guarantee is offered to the employee and the employee agrees to accept it and:

(i)  the day the employee commences employment; or
(ii) a day on which the employer and employee agree to vary the employee’s terms and conditions of employment.

Annualised salary arrangement

Alternatively, some awards include a provision which allows an employer to offer an annualised salary to an employee which takes into account award payments such as overtime, penalty rates, and allowances. Where an employer offers an annualised salary as permitted by an award, the employer is then exempt from the obligation to comply with the award terms which have already been compensated for in the salary.

Post-employment restraints

Depending on the nature of the duties being performed by the employee who will be subject to the contract, it may not be necessary to require an employee to agree to a post-employment restraint. You should seek to customise the restraint to relate to the specific employee.

In order for a post-employment restraint to be enforceable it must be ‘reasonable’ in the circumstances of the particular employee’s employment. Specifically, the restraint must be reasonable in relation to the activities sought to be restrained, the geographic area, and the duration of the restraint. The courts will not enforce restraints that impose an unreasonable restraint of trade on an employee, or that extend beyond protecting the legitimate business interests of an employer.

The particular restraint clause included in the contract includes provisions enabling a court, if it is to review the contract, to read down the covenants in relation to the employee if they are found to be void, invalid or otherwise unenforceable. ‘Reading down’ the strict wording of an unreasonable clause means to modify it until the clause is expressed in a way that is legally enforceable.

Link to policies and procedures

There is an increasing willingness of courts to incorporate policies into employees’ contracts of employment. Contracts of employment that do not expressly exclude such incorporation may cause problems for employers. While the contract contains an express exclusion, it is important that employers both comply with and broadly word their policies and procedures, to further reduce this legal risk.

Other leave

The ‘Other Leave’ clause in the contract indicates that long service leave, parental leave, and compassionate leave entitlements will be made in accordance with legislative requirements.

Withholding amounts from employees

The employment contract template indicates that the employer can withhold remuneration from the employee where the employee fails to provide the employer with adequate notice when terminating their employment, or fails to return employer property in a fair condition (including tools and uniforms). The general rule is that these types of clauses are not enforceable unless the employee specifically authorises the deduction. As such, the clauses allowing the employer to withhold remuneration for these reasons have been drafted to contain such an authorisation.

You should be aware however, that if the employer exercises their rights under the clauses, it is possible that the employee may make a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman, a court or industrial tribunal alleging the employer has not paid them their appropriate accrued entitlements or their guaranteed remuneration.

We recommend you seek legal advice if you are considering withholding remuneration from an employee. There may be other options available which can be explored.

Fringe benefits tax

A contract may allow for employees to be provided with benefits such as mobile phones, company vehicles and laptops, with limits provided for. You should seek financial advice in relation to potential fringe benefits tax liability before providing an employee with company property which the employee is allowed for personal use.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

HRwisdom have now uploaded a comprehensive new report on the Fair Work System.

The report is also available to all free and paid members of the HRwisdom community.

To access the report, simply enter your first name and email address in the free subscription box on the HRwisdom home page.

Feel free to share the report with friends and colleagues.
 
Why have HRwisdom produced the report?
 
The workplace relations system that governs Australian workplaces is commonly known as the Fair Work system.
 
The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman enforces compliance to the Fair Work System.
 
Have you seen some of the media release headlines from the Fair Work Ombudsman recently?
 
Take a look:

• Brisbane managers face court for allegedly underpaying workers $70,000.
• Sydney company faces court for allegedly underpaying young worker almost $5000.
• Perth business faces court for allegedly failing to provide employment records.
• Two Melbourne companies reimburse underpaid workers almost $400,000.
• Court hands down $50,000 penalty for underpaying Deniliquin worker.
• Whyalla company back-pays four workers $10k.
• $35,000 back-pay for three Darwin workers.
• Tasmanian resort faces court over alleged underpayments and sham contracting.
• Random audits at Sydney Fish Market return $278,000 to underpaid workers.
• Kalgoorlie audits recover $139,000 for 26 security workers.
• Fair Work inspectors to call on northern Victorian employers.
• $6000 penalty for $629 underpayment.

Did you notice the last headline?
 
An underpayment to an employee of $629 cost an employer $6000 in penalties alone (not to mention possible legal costs, management time, and disruption to the operation of the business).
 
This is why it is so important to have at least a basic understanding of the Fair Work system.
 
In this special staff management report, HRwisdom will walk you through the major components of the Fair Work system and point out a few things to watch out for along the way.
 
As always, you can find various staff management ideas, employment documents, and HR templates in the HRwisdom Library.
 
Kind regards,
 
HRwisdom Support

In today’s HRwisdom blog post, we are sharing you the simple facts on what timesheet and employment records to keep.

Don’t forget to get your timesheet template and employment templates in the HRwisdom Library.

The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) in addition to the Fair Work Regulations, require employers to keep various records relating to their employees.
 
Many employers are uncertain as to whether or not their organisation is required to keep timesheets which detail the number of hours worked by employees over a particular period, as part of the obligation to retain employee records.
 
Do you have to keep employee time records?
 
As a legal minimum, employers are required to keep employee timesheets of hours worked by staff, in so far as an employee is working overtime hours which attract a penalty rate or a loading. A penalty rate or loading is not specifically defined, and may include penalty rates in relevant industrial instruments (eg a modern award or Enterprise Agreement), but may also include a penalty rate which is paid in accordance with an employee’s contract of employment.
 
What is the employee record?
 
Where a penalty or loading for overtime applies, an employer is required to keep a record that specifies the number of actual overtime hours worked by the employee on each day, or alternatively the start and finish times of the employee’s overtime hours which were worked. In other words, the record required to be kept under the Regulations only extends to the hours of overtime worked, rather than the ordinary hours worked.
 
However, it may assist an employer to keep staff records of the ordinary time worked by employees, whether or not they are entitled to receive a penalty or loading for working overtime, as it may assist with the employer’s obligation to provide employees with an accurate pay slip. It would also assist in helping rebut a false claim for overtime payments.
 
It is therefore important that employers consult applicable industrial and/or other employment-related instruments which prescribe a loading or penalty rate for overtime hours worked. If you are unsure of whether or not an applicable instrument provides for a penalty or loading for overtime hours worked, or you are unsure of whether or not the hours worked by an employee constitutes overtime, it is recommended that you seek specific advice to ensure that your organisation is complying with its HR record keeping requirements.
 
What other employment records should you keep?
 
You should also keep the following types of employment records:

• general employment records
• taxation
• workers compensation
• occupational health & safety
• personnel
• employment contracts
• employment status
• reasons for termination of employment
• records required by the Fair Work Act, including remuneration details, payments, deductions and leave records, and
• records required by other legislation such as the Migration Act.

Remember, you can get your employment records templates in the HRwisdom Library which contains all your staff management templates.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom we regularly draw upon the collective wisdom of many staff management experts and smart Human Resources practitioners.

In our last blog posting we heard from our friends at Hunter People Solutions. They’ve been busy helping businesses with the workplace impacts that have occurred as a result of the final pieces of the Fair Work Act coming into effect.

In part one, we asked guest expert Colette Simon to ask some key questions to help you consider your workplace situation and to then give you some practical staff management answers.

Last time Colette explained that if and when you receive a flexible work request, the new laws require you to do a number of things:

• You have to respond in writing within 21 days, advising the employee if their request has been approved or not.
• If you’ve refused the request, you have to provide the reasons for your refusal.
• You may only refuse if you have ‘reasonable business grounds’ for doing so.

Now let’s hear from Colette as she outlines the ‘reasonable business grounds’ component.

Colette:

While not being specific, the new laws suggest such grounds might include:

• the effect on your business of approving such a request, including the financial impact of doing so and the impact of efficiency, productivity and customer service;
• the inability to organise work amongst your existing staff; and
• the inability to recruit a replacement, or the practicality or otherwise of the arrangements that may need to be put in place to accommodate the employee’s request.

Clearly, the reasonableness of any refusal will depend on the particular circumstances of the situation.
 
Most importantly in this new workplace relations area, it is imperative that you understand and adhere to your obligations as an employer when faced with requests for flexible work arrangements. If you don’t, for example, because you forgot to appropriately respond to a request within 21 days, you may face a claim for breaching the NES.  And a maximum penalty of $33,000 applies (ouch!).

Our HR advice? 
 
‘Winging it’ is probably not the best option. 

Understand your obligations so you can be on the front foot with your employees.  We suspect this new right will soon be as commonly understood as the existing right to 12 months unpaid maternity leave that we all take for granted.

Ask for help if you need it.  An independent ear and some professional advice can really make the difference to making a solid robust decision or something a little more risky.

For more HR policies and procedure and staff management resources, remember to visit the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom we regularly draw upon the collective wisdom of many staff management experts and smart Human Resources practitioners.

Our friends at Hunter People Solutions are looking forward to a great year – a year of new adventures and bigger challenges with a good dose of change management thrown in to the mix.  They’ve been busy helping businesses with the workplace impacts that have occurred as a result of the final pieces of the Fair Work Act coming into effect.

In part one of this blog post, we have asked guest expert Colette Simon to ask some key questions to help you consider your workplace situation. Colette will then give you some practical staff management answers.

Colette:

Do you know if your business is sufficiently prepared for the Fair Work changes?  Or are you thinking you are just going to ‘wing it’?

You’re no doubt aware that a big component of the new laws is the introduction of the National Employment Standard (NES). 

There are 10 standards and they form part of the safety net that applies to all employees who are covered in the federal system. 

The piece of the NES that we believe has the most potential to impact businesses is the right for employees to request a change in their working arrangements.   

The right is available only to employees who are parents of, or have responsibility for the care of a child who is under school age (or, if the child is under 18 years of age, who has a disability). And the change in working arrangements must be for the purpose of assisting the employee to care for the child.

So, what sort of flexible ‘changes in arrangements’ are we talking about here?

While not being specific, the new laws suggest this might include changes in hours of work, in patterns of work or in working location.  So the sort of requests that should be expected will probably include switching to part time work by working fewer days per week or fewer hours across each day as well as requests to work from home or moving to another more convenient office location.

To be eligible to make such a request under the NES, employees must have completed at least 12 months continuous service. They have to put their request in writing and set out the details and reason for the change.

If and when you receive such a request, the new laws require you to do a number of things:

• You have to respond in writing within 21 days, advising the employee if their request has been approved or not.
• If you’ve refused the request, you have to provide the reasons for your refusal.
• You may only refuse if you have ‘reasonable business grounds’ for doing so.

See Flexible Work Arrangements – Part 2 for information on the ‘reasonable business grounds’ component.

For more HR policies and procedure and staff management resources, remember to visit the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

The recent debacle at Toyota which has seen the company lose a reported $155 million per week has been widely reported. With continuing product recalls around the world, the losses are estimated to have caused an astonishing $30 billion loss in Toyota’s valuation on the stock market.

At HRwisdom we always focus on ideas and practices that can actively improve or protect a business. Today, we refer you to an excellent analysis of how poor HR policies and staff management practices potentially led to the $30 billion loss at Toyota.

The Eight Bad Staff Management Practices

In his excellent analysis, John Sullivan lists the eight bad staff management practices that contributed to Toyota’s massive downfall.

1. Rewards and recognition — The purpose of any corporate reward process is to encourage and incentivise the right behaviors and to discourage the negative ones. It’s important for the reward process to incentivise the gathering of information about problems. It’s equally important to reward employees who are successful in getting executives to take immediate action on negative information. Key questions — Were rapid growth (sales have nearly doubled recently) and “lean” cost-cutting recognized and rewarded so heavily that no one was willing to put the brakes on growth in order to focus on safety? Were the rewards for demonstrating error-free results so high that obvious errors were swept under the table?
2. Training — The purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situations they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check/act — but clearly the training among managers now needs to focus more on the last two. In addition, in an environment where safety is paramount, everyone should have been trained on the symptoms of “groupthink” and how to avoid the excess discounting or ignoring of negative external safety information. Key question — If Toyota’s training was more effective, would the managers involved have been more successful in convincing executives to act on the negative information received?
3. Hiring — The purpose of great hiring is to bring on board top-performing individuals with the high level of skills and capabilities that are required to handle the most complex problems. Poorly designed recruiting and assessment elements can result in the hiring of individuals who sweep problems under the rug and who are not willing to stand up to management. Key questions — Did Toyota have a poorly designed hiring process that allowed it to hire individuals who were not experienced in the required constructive confrontation technique? Were their hires poor learners that did not change as a result of company training?
4. The performance management process — The purpose of a performance management process is to periodically monitor or appraise performance, in order to identify problem behaviors before they get out of hand. If the performance measurement system included performance factors to measure responsiveness to negative information, Toyota wouldn’t be in turmoil today. Key questions — Was the performance appraisal and performance monitoring process so poorly designed that they did not identify and report groupthink type errors? Did Toyota’s famous high level of trust of its employees go too far without reasonable metrics, checks, and balances? Did HR develop sophisticated metrics that produced alerts to warn senior managers before minor problems got out of control?
5. The corporate culture — The role of a corporate culture is to informally drive employee behaviors so that it closely adheres to the company’s core values. Because these errors occurred under difficult driving conditions, it’s hard to blame the production group, which has a well-known reputation for Six Sigma quality in its construction. The negative reports came to functions like government, risk analysis, corporate and customer satisfaction. As a result, it is the culture within the corporate offices that need to be more closely monitored rather than assuming that the culture was aligned. It appears that the corporate culture created leaders so concerned with “saving face” and so adverse to negative publicity, that they for years postponed making the announcement of a massive recall. Key questions — Did HR’s failure to measure or monitor the corporate culture contribute to its misalignment? Was the corporate culture (the Toyota Way) so biased toward positive information that employees learned not to make waves, in spite of their professional responsibility to be heard on safety issues?
6. Leadership development and succession planning — The purpose of leadership development and succession planning processes are to ensure that a sufficient number of leaders with the right skills and decision-making ability are placed into key leadership positions. It is likely that the leadership development and the promotion process both failed to create and promote leaders who were capable of confronting problems and making difficult decisions. Key question — Was the leadership process at Toyota so outdated that it produced the wrong kind of leaders with outdated competencies, who could not successfully operate in the rapidly changing automotive industry?
7. Employee Retention — The purpose of a retention program is to identify and keep top performers and individuals with mission-critical skills. Key question — Did the retention program ignore people that brought up problems and as a result, did these whistleblowers often leave out of frustration?
8. Risk assessment — Most HR departments don’t even have a risk assessment team whose purpose is to both identify and calculate risks caused by weak employee processes. Clearly HR should have worked with corporate risk management at Toyota in order to ensure that employees were capable of calculating the long-term actual costs of ignoring product failure information. Key question — Should HR work with risk-assessment experts and build the capability of identifying and quantifying the revenue impacts of major HR errors, including a high hiring failure rate, a high turnover rate among top performers, and the cost of keeping a bad manager or employee?

Final Thoughts from John Sullivan

Toyota’s problems are not the result of a single individual making an isolated mistake, but rather due to a companywide series of mistakes that are all related to each other. So many corporate functions were involved, including customer service, government relations, vendor management and PR, that one cannot help but attribute the crash of Toyota to systemic management failure. Unfortunately, in this case, the famous Japanese saying is true. “The nail that stands out” was not encouraged to be different, but instead it was “pounded down” to conform.

The key lesson that others should learn from Toyota’s mistakes is that HR needs to periodically test or audit each of the processes that could allow this type of billion-dollar error to occur.

For more staff management advice and HR ideas you can join our mailing list or get your HR templates and Employee Retention information now.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

HRwisdom members should note that the employment landscape has changed and this affects how you manage staff.

As always, you can find various staff management ideas, employment documents, and HR templates in the HRwisdom Library.

Australian Employment Law Changes

Much of the new Federal workplace relations law called the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) took effect from 1 July 2009. The remaining provisions of the Act, which contain the National Employment Standards, commenced this year on 1 January 2010.
 
Thanks to our legal support experts, a number of important changes have occurred in the HRwisdom Library as a result of the employment law changes.
 
Use of new documents
 
Since 1 January 2010, members of the HRwisdom Library can now use the following new documents:

• Individual Flexibility Agreement (Award Covered)
• Request to Cash Out Leave
• Flexibility Policy

Discontinued documents
 
The following documents have now been removed from the HRwisdom Library as they cannot be used from 1 January 2010:

• Individual Transitional Employment Agreement – ITEA
• Letter To Employee enc ITEA and Info Statement
• Statutory Declaration – Adoption Leave
• Statutory Declaration – Long Paternity Leave
• Statutory Declaration – Ordinary Maternity Leave
• Statutory Declaration – Special Maternity Leave 

Modern awards
 
Modern awards also became operational from 1 January 2010. Modern awards replace existing federal awards and notional agreements preserving state awards (NAPSAs).
 
Copies of the modern awards can be obtained from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission’s website.
http://www.airc.gov.au/awardmod/fullbench/awards.htm
 
Fair Work Information Statement
 
From 1 January 2010, all employers covered by the national workplace relations system have an obligation to give each new employee a Fair Work Information Statement (the Statement) before, or as soon as possible after, the employee starts employment. You can download the form here:
http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pay-leave-and-conditions/Conditions-of-employment/Pages/Fair-Work-Information-Statement.aspx?role=employees
 
The Statement may be given to an employee by:

• giving it personally to the employee
• sending it by pre-paid post to the employee’s residential address or a postal address nominated by the employee
• sending it to the employee’s email address at work or to another email address nominated by the employee
• sending by email to the employee’s email address at work (or to another email address nominated by the employee), an electronic link to the page on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website where the Statement is located, or an electronic link that takes the employee directly to a copy of the Statement on the employer’s intranet
• faxing it to the employee’s fax number at work, fax number at home, or another fax number nominated by the employee
• another method (an employer will need to ensure this meets the requirement to give the Statement to the employee, eg by courier where there is a signed acceptance by the employee of receipt of the Statement).

You can obtain a copy of the Statement here:
http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pay-leave-and-conditions/Conditions-of-employment/Pages/Fair-Work-Information-Statement.aspx?role=employees
 
HRwisdom members should seek advice if they are unaware of whether they are covered by the national workplace relations system. Importantly, all states and territories except Western Australia have referred their powers regarding workplace relations for private enterprises to the Federal Government and as a consequence, most employers who were not previously covered by the system will now be covered.

As always, you can find various staff management ideas, employment documents, and HR templates in the HRwisdom Library.

HRwisdom Support

With thanks to regular HRwisdom contributor, Ron Jones, we would like to remind Australian employers of a new requirement starting next month.  

From 1 January 2010, you must give the Fair Work Information Statement to all new employees as soon as possible once they have commenced employment.   A copy of the statement is accessible here or via the following link:  

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pay-leave-and-conditions/Conditions-of-employment/Documents/Fair-Work-Information-Statement.pdf

  The statement addresses:

• The 10 minimum workplace entitlements in the National Employment Standards
• Modern awards- Agreement making
• Individual flexibility arrangements
• Freedom of association and workplace rights (general protections)
• Termination of employment
• Right of entry
• The Fair Work Ombudsman and Fair Work Australia

We advise all companies to treat this issue seriously – the issuing of the statement is itself one of the new National Employment Standards and penalties are likely to ensue if they are not followed.

As always, you can find all your HR templates and human resources documents in the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

Under the Fair Work Act, it is very important to keep good records regarding your staff and their employment arrangements.

In today’s HRwisdom blog posting, we’ve turned to industry expert, Ron Jones for some quick advice . . .

Ron Jones:

Employers covered by the Fair Work Act are required to maintain certain records for at least 7 years.

The records must detail – for each employee:

1. The basis of employment (full time, part time, permanent, casual, etc).
2. When the employment commenced and when and how it ceased.
3. The rate of remuneration, including allowances, penalty payments, loadings etc.
4. For casual staff, the total hours worked in the pay period.
5. For any other type of employee, any overtime hours worked (but only if they are receiving a penalty rate or loading for that work).
6. The gross and net amounts actually paid to the employee, including any deductions.
7. Superannuation contributions made on behalf of the employee.
8. What leave entitlements have been accrued and taken and the current balance.
9. Details of agreements (eg flexibility agreement under a modern award) which applies.

The records can be kept in electronic form.

An employer can be fined for not keeping these records, or making false or misleading entries.

Also the employer must provide access to a record, if asked by the employee to whom it relates, or by an inspector.

For more information, read here: managing staff.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support