Employment problems – spot the signs

The national minimum wage is $24.95 per hour. All workers should be paid at least this amount. Casual employees covered by the national minimum wage should also get at least a 25% casual loading. It is lawful to get paid less than this if you are a ‘junior’, this is usually 20 years of age or less. Most minimum rates in awards are higher than the minimum wage. The minimum wage is updated each year from July.

It is legal for you to be paid cash in hand – but your employer must give you a payslip. If you get cash without a payslip there is a real risk that your employer is not following the law.

For example, your employer may not be making superannuation contributions for you or paying income tax on your wages.

Some unpaid trials of a very short amount of time can be lawful, such as when an employer asks you to show your skills before hiring you. For example, if you are going for a job as a barista, it might take half an hour to demonstrate that you can make a range of different coffees using the coffee machine. For other jobs, it might take a bit longer to demonstrate your skills.

If your employer asks you to do training in preparation for work, you should be paid for this.

People do unpaid work for different reasons, like volunteering or to get work experience. This can be legal, as long you as you are not really an employee.

A volunteer is someone who works without expecting to be paid. For example, to help out a charity. If you are a volunteer, you are not entitled to be paid for the work you do.

You are not entitled to be paid for work if you are a student on a vocational placement arranged by an authorised educational or training institution in Australia and the unpaid work is part of your course.

It is more complex if you are doing unpaid work experience or an unpaid internship that is not part of your study. Some of these arrangements are lawful, some are not. For example, if you agree to do unpaid work for an employer to gain experience, but your work is not being supervised and you are given tasks like other employees that you do by yourself, then you might be considered an employee and be entitled to be paid for the work you do.

If you are not sure about whether your unpaid work is lawful, you should get legal advice.

You are a casual employee, if when you start employment:

• your employment relationship has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work, and
• you are entitled to casual rates under an award, registered agreement or employment contract.

A permanent employee can work full time or part time. A casual employee can sometimes work full time hours and still be considered casual.

A permanent employee is entitled to paid annual leave, paid personal/carers leave, notice for the termination of their employment and sometimes redundancy.

A casual employee is not entitled to these things but is normally entitled to 25% more than the minimum rates in the award, enterprise agreement, or the national minimum wage.

The National Employment Standards (NES) are 12 minimum employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees. Casual employees only get some NES entitlements including paid family and domestic violence leave and unpaid carers, compassionate and community service leave.

Sham arrangements are sometimes used by employers to avoid paying certain entitlements to employees. This means that even if your contract says you are a casual, you may not be a casual employee under Australian law.

Casuals who:

• believe they no longer meet the requirements of the casual employee definition, and
• have been employed for at least 12 months (small business) or 6 months (non-small business)

can provide written notice to their employer to change to permanent (full-time or part-time) employment under the National Employment Standards (NES). This is referred to as the ‘employee choice pathway’.

If you are not sure if you are a casual or if you are able to change to permanent employment, you should get legal advice.

For more information, see Becoming a permanent employee on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Many awards have a higher hourly rate of pay for work on weekends, public holidays, at night or in the early morning. If you are covered by an award, you should check your award to see if you are entitled to extra pay for such work.

You can check your award on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

If you are not covered by an award, you are only entitled to a higher rate of pay for work on weekends, public holidays, at night or in the early morning if your contract or enterprise agreement says so.

Your employer must contribute an extra 12% of wages into your superannuation fund.

Your employer has to pay you superannuation, regardless of how much you earn. From 1 January 2025, your employer may be committing an offence if they intentionally underpay you, including superannuation, after this date.

From 1 July 2025, you are also entitled to be paid superannuation if you receive parental leave pay. Services Australia will assess your entitlement to superannuation when you apply for parental leave pay.

If you are under 18 and work 30 hours or less per week, your employer does not have to pay you superannuation.

If you are a contractor and you don’t have employees of your own, you may be entitled to superannuation. If you are in this situation you should check with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or get legal advice.

If you are covered by an award or enterprise agreement you are entitled to breaks. You should check your award or enterprise agreement for more details about your breaks.

You may also be entitled to a break in your contract of employment.

If you don’t have a contract or it says nothing about breaks, you should still get a break. This is because work health and safety laws require a workplace to be safe and healthy. If your employer does not give you enough breaks it can increase the risk of accidents, tiredness, and mental illness.

Employees have a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to emails or phone calls outside of their working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable.

This change started on:

• 26 August 2024 for employees of non-small business employers. and
• 26 August 2025 for employees of small business employers.

For more information, see Right to disconnect on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Your employer must pay you in full and in money for the work you do. However, your employer can deduct rent or board from your wages if you have agreed to it in writing and the amount of the deduction is shown on your pay slip. The amount of money that is deducted should be reasonable.

Some awards expressly allow employers to deduct board from wages. For example, if you live and work at a motor inn, the hospitality award allows your employer to deduct set amounts for accommodation and meals from your pay. Working long hours for only accommodation is often exploitation. Workers who have been homeless or are at risk of homelessness sometimes find themselves in this situation.

Not all dismissals are unfair, but usually your employer must have a valid reason to terminate your employment and give you a chance to respond to that reason. If you think your dismissal was unfair you should get legal advice urgently. You only have 21 days from the date you were dismissed to start a case for unfair dismissal in the Fair Work Commission. If you are employed by the NSW Government or a local council in NSW, you normally have to go to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

For more information, visit the Fair Work Commission website.

The Fair Work Act protects workers who ‘stand up’ for their rights or complain about their employment. If you are dismissed for asking about your workplace rights or making a complaint, you can make a general protections dismissal application to the Fair Work Commission. There is a time limit of 21 days from the date you were dismissed to start this type of legal action. You should get legal advice because general protections dismissal applications are complex.

For more information, visit the Fair Work Commission website.