- National Employment Standards
From 1 January 2010, employers and employees in the national workplace system are covered by the new National Employment Standards (NES).
Under the NES, employees have certain minimum conditions. Together with pay rates in modern awards (which also generally take effect from 1 January 2010) and minimum wage orders, the NES makes up the safety net that cannot be altered to the disadvantage of the employee.
In addition to the NES, generally an employee’s terms and conditions of employment come from a modern award, agreement, award and agreement based transitional instruments, minimum wage orders, transitional minimum wage instruments, state or federal laws.
- What are the 10 NES entitlements?
The NES are set out in the Fair Work Act 2009 and comprise 10 minimum standards of employment. In summary, the NES involve the following minimum entitlements:
Maximum weekly hours of work – 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
Requests for flexible working arrangements – allows parents or carers of a child under school age or of a child under 18 with a disability, to request a change in working arrangements to assist with the child’s care.
Parental leave and related entitlements – up to 12 months unpaid leave for every employee, plus a right to request an additional 12 months unpaid leave, plus other forms of maternity, paternity and adoption related leave.
Annual leave – 4 weeks paid leave per year, plus an additional week for certain shift workers.
Personal / carer’s leave and compassionate leave – 10 days paid personal / carer’s leave, two days unpaid carer’s leave as required, and two days compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) as required.
Community service leave – unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service, with an entitlement to be paid for up to 10 days for jury service.
Long service leave – a transitional entitlement for certain employees who had certain LSL entitlements before 1/1/10 pending the development of a uniform national long service leave standard.
Public holidays – a paid day off on a public holiday, except where reasonably requested to work.
Notice of termination and redundancy pay – up to 4 weeks notice of termination (5 weeks if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years of continuous service) and up to 16 weeks redundancy pay, both based on length of service.
Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement – employers must provide this statement to all new employees. It contains information about the NES, modern awards, agreement-making, the right to freedom of association, termination of employment, individual flexibility arrangements, rights of entry, transfer of business, and the respective roles of Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The NES applies to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system, however only certain entitlements apply to casual employees.
- Who is in the national workplace system?
The national workplace relations system at present covers those who are:
- employed by a constitutional corporation (these are corporations that are trading or financial, usually Pty Ltd or Ltd companies)
- employed in Victoria, the Northern Territory or the ACT
- employed by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth authority
- a waterside employee, maritime employee or flight crew officer employed in connection with interstate or overseas trade or commerce.
- I’m not in the national workplace system. How am I affected?
There are two NES entitlements that apply to all full-time and part-time employees, whether they are covered by the national workplace relations system or not.
These are:
- parental leave and related entitlements (this also applies to casual employees who have been employed for at least 12 months by an employer on a regular and systematic basis and with an expectation of ongoing employment)
- notice of termination.
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