Updated Employment Agreement Templates

5 December 2022 - Updated: 18 September 2024

The ACA is delighted to release an updated version of the Employment Agreement templates to support members. Our IR advisor Fair Work Lawyers has recently undertaken a review of our template employment contracts, ensuring they are user friendly and legally compliant, and reflect recent legislative changes. Download them today!

We are pleased to release five (5) updated contract templates. The first four relate to full-time/part-time employees covered by the following awards:

1. Architects Award 2020;
2. Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020;
3. Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020 (Drafting staff); and
4. Miscellaneous Award 2020 (Interior designers).

See our Awards page to access the latest versions of the above Awards.

The fifth template is a single Casual Employment Contract with separate schedules for each of the awards listed above.

The main changes to the contracts made are to:

• Insert provisions to deal with the new right to disconnect to set an expectation that some out-of-hours contact may be required;
• Draw attention to the importance of having a separate sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination section and highlight the positive duty employers have to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace;
• Amend the compassionate leave and personal/carer’s leave provisions to bring them in line with the National Employment Standards;
• Streamline parental leave provisions to refer back to the National Employment Standards given the legislative change in this area;
• Amend the language around the requirement to work on public holidays following case law indicating that any requests to work on a public holiday must be made in accordance with the National Employment Standards;
• Insert a new clause which provides that employees have been provided with a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement and where relevant, the Casual Employment Information Statement or Fixed Term Employment Information Statement, along with a drafting note explaining an employer’s obligations;
• Streamline the casual conversion provisions given the state of flux in this area in legislation at the moment; and
• Amend the fixed term contract provisions and insert a drafting note about the changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of all of the changes. You should review the contracts carefully to ensure that there are no other changes that would materially affect your business.

Before using these templates, we strongly encourage you to read the contract thoroughly to ensure it meets the needs of your business. It is a template only and therefore, you may need to make amendments to suit your circumstances. Before making any amendments, you should seek legal advice to ensure you are not making any amendments that have unintended consequences. To the extent you require assistance or have any questions, you should also seek advice about how to implement the new contracts within your workplace.

To ensure you understand your obligations under the contract, it should be read in conjunction with the relevant award and the National Employment Standards.

You should also review the User Guide, which will help you understand various elements of the templates.

Several drafting notes have been added to the contract to explain some of the clauses in more detail. These drafting notes should be deleted before an employee is provided with a copy of the contract for their consideration.

If you have any questions about the contracts, you can access the ACA Industrial Relations Advisory service with Fair Work Lawyers, who can provide advice and assistance.

The ACA Employment Agreement Templates are available to all ACA members – see below to access. If you aren’t a member, find out more about the benefits of ACA membership here.

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