Employee rights and labour law in Australia: What employers owe

Award coverage is decided employee by employee. Paying above the award rate doesn’t switch the award off. Its overtime, penalty and record keeping obligations still apply, and this is one of the most commonly missed points in Australian employment. The award hours rules then decide when overtime and penalty rates start.

• Check for an enterprise agreement in the Fair Work Commission database and in existing contracts and payslips.
• Compare the business’s actual activity with the coverage clause of the likely industry award, then test occupational awards if no industry award fits.
• Match the classification to actual duties, responsibility, qualifications and experience. A job title alone does not decide it.
• Write an award and classification memo with the coverage clause, evidence, rate source and effective date, and revisit the memo after any promotion, change of duties or restructure.

Maximum fines are set in penalty units, the fixed amounts federal law uses to express fines. For offences committed on or after 1 July 2026, one unit is AUD 364.

• A company faces a fine of up to the greater of three times the underpayment or 25,000 penalty units (AUD 9.1 million).
• An individual faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to the greater of three times the underpayment or 5,000 penalty units (AUD 1.82 million), or both.

Honest mistakes aren’t criminal. The offence targets intentional underpayment, so a documented award decision and clear pay records are your best protection.

A salary can cover award or agreement entitlements, as long as the contract names which ones it covers. The employer must still pay in full for each pay period, and generally cannot use an excess in one period to make up a shortfall in another. Records of overtime, penalties, loadings and allowances are still required.

Employees can disclose their pay and related conditions, keep them private, or ask colleagues about theirs. These pay secrecy rights apply to contracts made or varied from 7 December 2022, and employers must not take adverse action because an employee used one.

A payslip is due within one working day after payday, including during leave. It shows the pay period, gross and net pay, the rate, separately identified loadings, allowances and deductions, and superannuation contributions. Records must be in English and available to employees who ask. Family and domestic violence leave is recorded but must not appear on the payslip.

The employer must confirm the termination date in writing and either let the employee work the notice or pay in lieu. An employee over 45 with at least two years’ service receives one extra week. An award, agreement or contract may require more.

The employer pays redundancy pay at the employee’s base rate for ordinary hours, as set out below.

The NES scale drops to 12 weeks at 10+ years, down from 16 weeks for 9 to 10 years. Casuals, employees with under 12 months’ service, and specified period or project employees are generally excluded, and most small businesses are exempt.

Take an illustrative employee aged 50 with six and a half years’ service and a base rate of AUD 1,800 a week, at a business with 40 employees. More than five years’ service gives four weeks’ notice, and being over 45 adds one, so five weeks are owed, worked or paid in lieu. Six and a half years falls in the 6 to 7 year redundancy band of 11 weeks, and 11 weeks at AUD 1,800 is AUD 19,800.

Don’t skip consultation. If an award or agreement requires it and it doesn’t happen, the redundancy won’t count as genuine, and that opens the door to an unfair dismissal claim.

A national system employee typically needs all three of the following:

• Six months’ employment, or 12 months where the employer has fewer than 15 employees.
• Award or agreement coverage, or annual earnings below the high income threshold of AUD 190,100 from 1 July 2026.
• A dismissal that was not a genuine redundancy.

A small business dismissal consistent with the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, the federal dismissal code for employers with fewer than 15 employees, is not unfair. The employee must ordinarily lodge a claim within 21 days after the dismissal takes effect.

General protections prohibit adverse action because a person has, exercises or proposes to exercise a workplace right, such as taking leave, raising a safety issue or asking about pay. They also cover discrimination and industrial activity, and reach demotion, disadvantageous job changes and withheld entitlements as well as dismissal.

A dismissal based claim also has a 21-day filing period. Before a dismissal, record the decision maker, the substantiated reason, the evidence considered and any recent complaints, leave or pay enquiries.

Since December 2022, the federal Sex Discrimination Act has placed a positive duty on employers and PCBUs. They must take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, hostile workplace environments and related victimisation. Guidance from the Australian Human Rights Commission, the national human rights body, expects leadership, written prevention and response measures, worker knowledge, risk management, support, reporting and response systems, and monitoring. A complaints policy on its own falls short.

Federal age, disability, race and sex discrimination laws apply alongside state and territory laws, which can use different protected attributes, exemptions and time limits. Test recruitment, pay, promotion, flexible work decisions and termination for direct and indirect discrimination.

Psychosocial hazards are risks to mental health from how work is designed and managed, such as excessive demands, poor support, bullying or fatigue. Under the model work health and safety laws, a PCBU must identify these hazards, eliminate or minimise the risks, and consult workers. Victoria applies its own Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 from 1 December 2025. Check other jurisdictions’ regulations separately.