The Law Handbook 2024

Chapter 11.5: Employment contracts, awards and agreements 1063 in which case some form of fire-fighting leave may be necessary. Many employees may undertake work- related or other types of study, in which case study leave may be necessary. Types of leave include: • blood-donor leave; • fire-fighting leave; • leave for Australian Defence Force reservists; • unpaid leave or extended leave of absence; • study leave • leave to participate in union elections; • leave while serving as an elected union official; • additional annual leave; • jury service leave; • additional personal or compassionate leave, including the extension of the circumstances in which such leave may be taken; and • additional parental leave, including any part of parental leave that is to be paid. Jury service leave Unless specifically exempted, a person called for jury duty must attend, even though the trial may run for many weeks or even months. An employer cannot lawfully dismiss an employee called for jury duty. For more information, see ‘Juries’ in Chapter 1.2: An introduction to the courts. 10 Ordinary hours The NES in the FW Act contains a maximum hours of work standard. However, the maximum under the standard can be manipulated and it is common for employment contracts to provide that reasonable additional hours must be worked under an annual salary arrangement. Accordingly, employees are advised to reach agreement on the number of hours to be worked each week and identify when the hours are to be worked. With some industries moving to round-the-clock production, employees should not make assumptions about the hours during which they will be called upon to work. Hours could be included in the agreement by reference to a roster or some other arrangement. Note the comments about penalty rates (see ‘3 Penalty rates’, above). 11 Meal breaks and rest breaks Meal breaks and rest breaks are not part of the NES or FW Act but may be contained in modern awards. Such provisions can be incorporated into enterprise agreements to have certain application. Note that the parties may agree to a longer interval without a break. While occupational health and safety legislation or regulations may apply to some classifications of work to provide for breaks from repetitive work, consideration should be given to the inclusion of rest breaks in an employment agreement. 12 Termination of the agreement Issues of termination and redundancy are the most frequent sources of dispute and should be carefully considered (see further ‘Termination of employment’ in Chapter 11.6: Protection for your rights at work). 13 Required termination period The period of notice each party is required to give to the other to end the agreement or contract should be specified in the agreement. In the absence of any specified period, the common law requires ‘reasonable notice’, but this can be difficult to interpret in any given case. To avoid expensive legal battles, the parties should specify the period of notice required. The agreement should further confirm that normal wages are payable in lieu of notice. In negotiating a period of notice, issues such as the employee’s seniority and remuneration, the relocation or other personal commitments required by an employee to the new position (among other things) may indicate that a longer period of notice should be sought by the employee. NOTE The minimum notice periods in the NES (see ‘National Employment Standards’, above) now have wide application to employees in the national system. As the period of notice specified in the NES is a minimum period, the parties are able to agree to include a contractual term for a greater period of notice. 14 Grounds for instant dismissal Many employers include in the contract a catalogue of events that are ‘serious misconduct’ warranting instant dismissal. This approach is generally not beneficial to either the employer – who may fail to comprehensively list all events constituting misconduct – or to the employee, who may be intimidated or resentful.