Termination of Employment Clause

29 October 2018

A new award determination requires employers to pay employees within seven days of their termination of employment. The awards affected are the Architects Award, Clerks Award and Miscellaneous Award. The new determination comes into effect from the first full pay period from 1 November 2018.

The new clause states that an employee must be paid their wages and entitlements no later than seven days after the day on which the employee’s employment terminates. This includes wages under the award for any complete or incomplete pay period up to the end of the day of termination, and all other amounts that are due to the employee under this award and the National Employment Standards.

Note 1: Section 117(2) of the Act provides that an employer must not terminate an employee’s employment unless the employer has given the employee the required minimum period of notice or “has paid” the employee payment instead of giving notice.

Note 2: Paragraph (b) allows the Commission to make an order delaying the requirement to make a payment under this clause. For example, the Commission could make an order delaying the requirement to pay redundancy pay if an employer makes an application under s.120 of the Act for the Commission to reduce the amount of redundancy pay an employee is entitled to under the NES.

Note 3: State and Territory long service leave laws or long service leave entitlements under s.113 of the Act, may require an employer to pay an employee for accrued long service leave on the day on which the employee’s employment terminates or shortly after.