The Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation is the biggest change in employment legislation in Australia in over a decade.
There is a lot involved, but in this episode we break it down to what you need to be prepared for next.
Specifically we explore new limitations being brought in around Fixed Term Contracts from 6 Dec 2023. We discuss: * What a Fixed Term Contract is * What had changed * What exceptions apply * What this means for your business
Would you like to submit a question to the show? Let us know on our website or via LinkedIn.
Brought to you by Aster HR, the Work Wonders Podcast is hosted by Angela Gauci & Susan Rochester and is recorded at Launch Pad at Western Sydney University.
All information or advice included in this podcast is general, has been developed as a starting point for your business, and should be tailored to your specific requirements. It should not be considered legal advice. We have made every attempt to ensure the accuracy and currency of this information at the time of recording. However, references to things like employment laws are subject to change. For specific advice relating to your business, please get in touch with us.
The Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation is the biggest change in employment legislation in Australia in over a decade.
There is a lot involved, but in this episode we break it down to what you need to be prepared for next.
Specifically we explore new limitations being brought in around Fixed Term Contracts from 6 Dec 2023. We discuss: * What a Fixed Term Contract is * What had changed * What exceptions apply * What this means for your business
Would you like to submit a question to the show? Let us know on our website or via LinkedIn.
Brought to you by Aster HR, the Work Wonders Podcast is hosted by Angela Gauci & Susan Rochester and is recorded at Launch Pad at Western Sydney University.
All information or advice included in this podcast is general, has been developed as a starting point for your business, and should be tailored to your specific requirements. It should not be considered legal advice. We have made every attempt to ensure the accuracy and currency of this information at the time of recording. However, references to things like employment laws are subject to change. For specific advice relating to your business, please get in touch with us.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Work Wonders podcast brought to you by AstaHR, where we simplify the human side of business.
Speaker 2:
I'm Angela and I'm Susan. Let's dive into today's episode and find out what you've been wondering about. In today's episode, we're going to revisit the Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation and discuss the final introduction limiting the use of fixed term contracts. We'll tell you what the change is all about and what that means for your business. This is the Work Wonders podcast. Hi Susan, hi Angela. So we're back talking about Secure Jobs, better Pay, and hopefully that's a term that our listeners are aware of by now, because it began well a year ago, in December 2022. So that legislation made a lot of changes to the Fair Work Act and those changes have been gradually phased in over the last 12 months, and we'll put a list of the episodes that we've already done related to those changes in case you feel that you need to catch up. Today we're looking at the final piece of the puzzle, which is changes limiting the use of fixed term contracts. So, angela, what is a fixed term contract? How do we define that?
Speaker 1:
It's a good place to start, isn't it? You know you have your full time and part time and casual we're probably all familiar with that. But fixed term is where, nice and easily, there is a start and an end date. Quite obviously, there is a fixed term. So, unlike any other, when that end date rolls around, it's very obvious that that's the end of employment, unless you're in a position where you can extend it or perhaps make someone permanent, in which case they'd be going on to a different agreement anyway, wouldn't they?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely so. Look, it's traditionally useful for, perhaps, a business that relies on funding and those funding agreements only last for three years or something like that, or if you're perhaps a business that's quite seasonal and you only need people for a particular portion of the year.
Speaker 2:
that's maybe some examples of where it might be used, or I guess if you've got a fixed term project that you're working on that has a particular deadline and you're bringing in extra people to get the work done. Yeah, absolutely. So now that we understand what a fixed term contract is, what's changed?
Speaker 1:
Well, look, it's still there and you can still actually employ people in this way, but the government had some concerns around employers using those fixed term contracts. On and on and on again. Ie repeating them, right, so?
Speaker 2:
just rolling over into another contract. Or sometimes I've seen people who haven't even issued a new contract for a new period. You know, it's basically they just keep working, a bit like those long term casuals who've been in the job for five years.
Speaker 1:
So it's about trying to avoid that insecure nature of work there. So they're putting a limit on how long we can employ someone for fixed term contracts, and that limit is now two years, or if you're going to be using it and then extending it, you can only extend it for two periods. So whichever is sooner, if you had someone for six months and then extended it another six months, that's your two renewals. So to speak.
Speaker 2:
Okay, yeah, you stop Right. So that's really going to make some changes for how people approach contracts, but I imagine like there's certain situations where you have to be able to do that and you mentioned earlier, if you've got limited funding, oh, yes, like you know, in the positions tied to funding, for example. So what are some of the exceptions that are now?
Speaker 1:
allowed. So there are some definite exceptions to this rule. The first one is apprentices and trainees. That's quite obvious because they have a training contract so they need to be employed in that nature for that time. So example we started with around the seasonal work, you know. Let's say, for example, a business harvest their produce at a certain time, that's okay, they have an exception rule there so they can use it for that purpose. There might be fixed term contracts used when a person is replacing someone else. So let's say person A goes off on workers comp and you hire someone in a fixed term contract to replace them. That can be a bit unknown, kind of however long that might go on for so that's okay.
Speaker 1:
Or I guess, if it's permitted by the award, there's always that allowance if your award overrides it and says it's okay too.
Speaker 2:
So I'm thinking you might with the same employer. An employee could have fixed term contracts to do different tasks or for different purposes, so it sounds like that's probably allowed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean the intention of the law is so that people aren't put into a position of just being told that it's fixed term because it suits the employer.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
If it's genuinely the nature of the work, I believe that to be reasonable. So I think that would, as long as it's aligning to that need for the work to occur in that sort of fixed capacity. Yeah, the key word's always reasonable?
Speaker 2:
It's not yeah.
Speaker 1:
And then you've got the case of, like we said, they're not for profits. Let's say, their big bucket of funding is for a three year period and then they're only going to continue if they get more funding after that. It would be quite reasonable to only employ your staff for the duration that you know you've got the money for.
Speaker 2:
Ideally yes.
Speaker 1:
I think that's another exception there as well. Yeah, okay, good.
Speaker 2:
Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the things that you need to do to manage people in your business? We've got changes to legislation, different generations in the workplace, managing the expectations of the people that you employ. Why not hand all that over to the experts and get on with what you do best? The experienced team at Aster HR can quickly give you the advice that you need and get you headed in the right direction. Without HR support and coaching for you with managing people, it all becomes so much simpler. Should do your free call today at astrohrcomau. Now let's get back to the episode. So I'm sitting here in my business.
Speaker 2:
I might have some people on fixed-term contracts. In fact, I can imagine situations where I have done in my business I have done that, where I've brought people in and said, okay, this is a 12-month contract and then they're doing fine, so gets the end of the 12 months, I might just let that slide and they just keep working under the same conditions. That's obviously not on.
Speaker 1:
No If you're actually an employer that chooses not to observe these new restrictions or be on top of that like you're saying, the legislation is quite clear that it will just assume that your person is permanent. So if you let them, like you say, just let that date slide, they will now be considered permanent. So not only of course are they entitled to leave and all those sorts of things, but that you can't just go ahead and end that employment because you went oh well, that was a month ago no, exactly.
Speaker 2:
It's not that simple. It's a bit like trying to end probation after the probation period is finished. Not recommended, no. So what other things do these changes mean for businesses?
Speaker 1:
Well, Fair Work have put out a new Fair Work information statement specifically for these types of contracts. So we now have three Fair Work information statements. One is just the general one, which should always be given to any employee. We have the casual one, and now we have this third one, which is a fixed term contract information statement. So make sure you're giving that to employee If you're hiring them in that capacity. They're actually imposing a penalty if you don't do that. So that's quite important to remember.
Speaker 2:
That one Very important to remember, and I think it underlies how important it is to understand what sort of agreement you've employed your staff on. You know making sure that they're getting the right information.
Speaker 1:
Yeah absolutely Obviously, you're going to need to keep record of these things as well. Because it's time limited, you want to have really good records to show when the contract started, when it's due to finish, or if you ask someone that's going to recur it or start it again, you'll need to have that recorded somewhere so that you can be sure that you're not falling outside those limitations. And then, if you do need the person to continue working past their two year mark or past their two terms of fixed term, then you'll need to make the decision about what you might offer them, whether it would be a perhaps a permanent job or casual job or something like that. Yeah, making the decision there, rather than just, like you say, letting it lag on and on.
Speaker 2:
Lack so many things we tend to do oh dear. So big changes for people who are using fixed term contracts. When does all this come into effect?
Speaker 1:
Sixth of December is our date. So any new contracts or ie any new person that you hire after the sixth of December, that's 7th of December onwards. If you hire them in a fixed term capacity, these limits apply.
Speaker 2:
Except for the exceptions noted above Exactly yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:
Whereas if you're in that scenario, like you offered in the beginning, if you've currently got people on a fixed term contract right now, their limitations is only if their contract is renewed. Ok, so I'll give you an example. Let's say we have an employee on a six month fixed term contract right now and it's due to come up to finish in January of 2024. Let's say you decide to extend that for another six month period. That would mean that you've then issued the two fixed term contracts consecutively.
Speaker 2:
So the first one's counted.
Speaker 1:
That's right. Yeah, so you've hit your limit at that point.
Speaker 2:
And you wouldn't be able to offer them a two year contract.
Speaker 1:
No, ok. So, as you said, susan, the secure jobs, better pay legislation was quite large. There was a lot of changes. Kept us very busy, hasn't it? It has.
Speaker 2:
And we've got several episodes on different aspects of the changes that have taken place in 2023. So we'll provide the links on the show notes.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yep, go back and listen to those episodes if you're unsure. But we also have a really handy compliance checklist bringing all this into one place. Not just interesting about secure jobs, better pay, but everything that's happened lately. So if you're feeling a little bit out of sync, why not go and check that out? It's on our website. You can download it for free on our resources page. It's our compliance checklist which will run you through each of the things that you need to be sure that you're on top of to make sure that you're compliant for your business.
Speaker 2:
And if you're still puzzled or have any queries, you know where to find us Either go to astrahrcomau or visit our WorkWonders LinkedIn page.
