Employment Contract Review
Before you sign, we can review your employment contract so you know exactly what you are agreeing to: pay and award coverage, hours, probation, notice, bonuses, confidentiality, intellectual property and restraints, and any term the law no longer allows.
Your employment contract is the document your employer will point to if anything goes wrong, so the best time to understand it is before you sign. Our employment lawyers can review your contract, explain what it means in plain English, flag the terms that carry risk for you, and suggest changes to ask for.
A contract sits on top of the legal minimums. Whatever it says, you are still entitled to the National Employment Standards, any modern award or enterprise agreement that covers your job, and the national minimum wage. A term that tries to give you less than those minimums has no effect. But a contract can give you more, and it can also bind you to obligations the law does not impose, such as a post-employment restraint.
Terms The Law No Longer Allows
Several terms that were common in older contracts are now restricted by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth):
- Pay secrecy clauses. Since 7 December 2022 you have a workplace right to disclose your own pay and related terms, and to ask other employees about theirs (s 333B), unless your contract was made before that date, contains a pay secrecy term and has not been changed since. A term that stops you doing so has no effect (s 333C), and since 7 June 2023 an employer contravenes the Act by putting one in a new contract (s 333D).
- Long or rolling fixed-term contracts. From 6 December 2023, a fixed-term contract generally cannot run for more than 2 years (counting any extensions or consecutive contracts for the same work), or allow more than one extension or renewal, unless an exception applies (ss 333E-333F). See our page on fixed-term contracts.
- Contact outside working hours. Since 26 August 2024 (26 August 2025 for small business employers) you have a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside your working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable (s 333M). See our page on the right to disconnect.
- Calling an employee a casual or a contractor. Whether you are a casual (s 15A) or an employee rather than a contractor (s 15AA) now depends on the real substance and practical reality of the relationship, not just the label in the contract. See our page on casual employees.
What Our Contract Review Covers
Minimum Entitlements
Checking that the contract meets the National Employment Standards and the national minimum wage, and that nothing in it purports to take them away.
Award Coverage And Classification
Identifying any modern award or enterprise agreement that covers your job, the classification that fits your real duties, and how the contract's pay compares with the award for the hours you will actually work.
Salary, Allowances And Reimbursements
Whether a salary is said to cover overtime, penalty rates and allowances, and whether that is likely to hold up for the hours you will work; and what you will be reimbursed for.
Hours And Overtime
Whether your ordinary hours, and any requirement to work additional hours, are within what the law treats as reasonable (s 62 of the Fair Work Act), and how overtime is paid or absorbed.
Probation
What the probation clause does, and how it interacts with the minimum employment period for unfair dismissal: 6 months, or 12 months with a small business employer. A probation period does not by itself stop you making an unfair dismissal claim once the minimum employment period has passed.
Bonuses And Commissions
Whether your bonus or commission is a contractual entitlement or discretionary, what happens to it if you resign or are dismissed, and how any discretion must be exercised. See bonuses.
Termination And Notice
How much notice each side must give, whether the employer can pay you instead of notice, and whether it can end the contract early without notice. The contract cannot give you less than the minimum notice under s 117 of the Fair Work Act.
Redundancy
Whether you will get more than the minimum redundancy pay under the National Employment Standards. See redundancy pay.
Confidentiality
What the contract defines as confidential, and whether knowledge and contacts you bring into the job should be excluded so that you can keep using them later.
Intellectual Property
Who will own what you create, and whether work you do in your own time or on your own projects is caught.
Restraints Of Trade
Whether a non-compete, non-solicitation or non-poaching clause is likely to be enforceable, and how to negotiate it down before you sign. See employment restraints.
Exclusivity And Other Work
Whether you must work only for this employer, or can keep a side business or second job.
Policies
Which workplace policies are said to form part of your contract, and whether you have been given copies.
Suggested Amendments
Clear, practical changes to ask for, and how to raise them.
Your employer should also give you the Fair Work Information Statement when you start (s 125), the Casual Employment Information Statement if you are a casual, and the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement if your contract ends on a set date (s 333K).
If you work in the WA state system (for example for a sole trader, a partnership, a WA council or the WA public sector), the minimum conditions come from the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 (WA) and your WA award instead of the National Employment Standards. See minimum conditions in the WA state system.
In most cases we can review your employment contract and give you our advice in a single meeting, so you can go back to your new employer with confidence and a clear list of anything you want changed.
If you are a senior manager or executive, see executive and managers contract review for the extra issues we look at, such as incentive plans, termination benefits and post-employment restraints.
If a dispute has already arisen about your contract, see how we help with contract disputes. Contact us for a free discussion to find out whether we are able to assist you.