What is a Full Time Employment Contract?
A Full Time Employment Contract is a contract which is used to document your employment arrangement with a full-time employee.
It covers all of the important terms of employment, including start date, position and duties, hours of work and remuneration.
Who can use this template?
- Businesses looking to employ full time staff
- You want proper legal protection
- You want to appear professional to your employees
- You want to avoid misunderstandings and clearly outline the terms of employment
What does a Full Time Employment Contract include?
Our Full Time Employment Contract template covers:
- Position – details of the position, including start date, location, manager and duties
- Probation– optional clause, allows you to have a trial period to assess performance and suitability for the position
- Ordinary Hours of Work – regular hours per week, including days and times, and paid or unpaid breaks
- Remuneration – salary, superannuation
- Leave – entitlements to annual leave, personal/carers’ leave and other types of leave
- Your Obligations – employee obligations to the business, including duties, conduct and standards
- Termination – how either party can terminate the employment agreement, including notice period
- Confidential Information – to protect your confidential information
- Intellectual Property – to protect your intellectual property
- Personal Information – consent to collect personal information for payroll and HR purposes
- Surveillance – consent to monitor use of IT systems etc
- Restraint – to prevent an employee from intefering or disrupting relationship with customers, suppliers, employees and contractors
What is a Full Time employee?
A full-time employee:
🔹 works, on average, 38 hours each week
🔹 usually works regular hours each week
🔹 is a permanent employee or on a fixed-term contract
The actual hours of work for an employee in a particular job or industry are agreed between the employer and the employee and/or set by an award or registered agreement.
What’s the difference between casual and full time?
The main difference between casual and full-time is that a full-time employee works, on average, around 38 hours each week and has an expectation of ongoing work.
By contrast, a casual has no guaranteed hours of work or expectation of ongoing work in the future. Casual employees provide businesses with a great deal of flexibility as casuals can be hired as needed. Casual employees are not entitled to the same benefits as a full-time employee and do not receive entitlements such as annual leave, sick leave, notice upon termination and redundancy pay.
Casual employees are paid a higher hourly pay rate than equivalent full-time or part-time employees. This is called a ‘casual loading’ and is paid because they don’t get benefits such as sick or annual leave.
Changing from casual to full-time employment
A casual employee can change to full-time employment at any time if the employer and employee both agree to it.
Most awards have a minimum process for changing casual employees to full-time or part-time. Some enterprise agreements and other registered agreements have a similar process.
Do I need a Full Time Employment Contract?
Yes, absolutely! A contract protects both you and your employees.
You should always have a contract signed before a new employee starts working for you.
An employment contract will help to set the ground rules in black and white so everyone is clear on their obligations and how everything will work. You need a proper written contract to enforce your rights and make sure your business is legally protected in case something goes wrong.
Does this Full Time Employment Contract template include a restraint clause?
Yes, it does.
A restraint of trade clause helps to protect your business interests. It prevents the ex-employee from soliciting or approaching your employees, contractors, clients and customers after they have ceased employment with your company.
Keep in mind that restraints of trade are only enforceable if you can prove that the restraint is necessary to protect your legitimate interests. This may not be the case if the restraint runs for an excessive period of time, covers a geographical area that is too broad, or extends beyond the industry in which you primarily operate.
Employer Obligations
We recommend that you consult the Fair Work website to check any Awards and agreements which may apply before you use this template.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to pay at least the minimum wage and entitlements to your employees under the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement.
You must also provide all new employees with a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement by law.
You can view a handy guide to hiring new employees HERE
Is my employee covered by an Award?
Awards apply to employers and employees depending on the industry they work in and the type of job worked. Every award has information about who it covers in the coverage clause (usually clause 4) and the job classifications (usually in the pay clause or a schedule).
There are more than 100 industry or occupation awards that cover most people who work in Australia. An employer can be covered by more than one award depending on the jobs the employees do.
You can use the Find My Award tool to check for award coverage on the Fair Work website. In some cases there may not be an award that covers your industry/job role (this is known as “award-free”).
If you are unsure about the status of an employee, you should seek legal advice.
Is this Full Time Employment Contract template legally binding?
Absolutely!
All of our templates have been drafted by qualified Australian lawyers who hold an Australian legal practicing certificate.
We are affiliated with a commercial law firm based in Sydney.
