New Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation

The new laws applicable to these areas include:

• giving employees the right to share (or not share) information about their pay 
• banning secrecy terms in employment contracts and other workplace-related instruments 
• prohibiting job ads with pay rates lower than the legal minimum entitlements that apply to the job. 

Pay secrecy
As part of the new laws around pay secrecy, employees and future employees now have the right to share, or not share, information about their pay and employment terms and conditions that would be needed to work out their pay, such as their hours of work. It also allows them to ask other employees (with the same or different employer) about the same conditions of their employment. With this in mind, employees cannot be forced to give this information to another employee if they don’t want to. This right is something that can be exercised even after they leave their employment.

What does this mean for employers? These new laws mean that employers can’t take adverse action against any existing or future employees because of these rights, nor can they prevent an existing or future employee from exercising these rights. The new pay secrecy workplace rights apply to employees with employment contracts:

• that were entered into on or after 7 December 2022, or 
• entered into before 7 December 2022 where the contract doesn’t include pay secrecy terms that are inconsistent with these rights. 

For employees who entered into a contract prior to 7 December 2022 which includes pay secrecy terms inconsistent with the legislation, any pay secrecy terms no longer have effect and cannot be enforced.  

Job advertisements
When advertising for job opportunities and positions within your business, from 7 January 2023, job advertisements cannot include pay rates that would breach the Fair Work Act or a fair work instrument (such as an award or agreement). This means businesses can’t have job adverts that include rates of pay that undercut employee’s minimum entitlements. 

These requirements apply from 7 January 2023, regardless of when a jab advertisement may have been originally posted. This means that if the job ad was posted in 2022, the new requirements will apply to that ad. 

	Workplace Relations Support Workplace Relations Support can help members through general and comprehensive support to understand these new requirements. You can contact us via phone (07) 3872 2222 and email support workplacerelations@amaq.com.au.
	Workplace Relations Toolkit Workplace Relations Toolkit subscribers will be the first to receive updates progressively throughout the year on the new Secure Job, Better Pay conditions that come into effect.
	Workplace Relations Consultancy Workplace Relations Consultancy can review contracts you already have in place to assess their compliancy with the new laws.