Get set for the New Year - contracts
Kick start the New Year with a review of your employment contracts to ensure you have a contract for each member of staff that is up to date. Our employment templates were reviewed and updated by the legal team last year so now is a great time think about the risk level and the steps to take to keep your workplace risk low.
An employment contract is a written agreement between the practice and your team member and is designed to protect both the practice and the employee. The most common contractual disputes can occur as a result of termination, resignation and redundancy where the terms and conditions of the contract are often put under the microscope. Without a contractual agreement in place, this is difficult to navigate when dealing with employees in the event any of these situations occur.
There are a couple of questions you need to answer in order to determine which contract you need to issue to your new staff member such as, is the role:
- Covered by an award such as the Health Professional Support Services (HPSS) or Nurses Award? This will affect various minimum entitlements as is set out in the relevant award.
- Full-time, part-time or casual? There are significant legislatives differences between permanent employment and casual employment, so the contract needs to make these distinctions.
- Fixed-term? You may wish to employ someone for a specific period of time eg. To cover maternity leave or holiday leave cover. The contract must reflect the fixed nature of the employment.
Navigating employment contracts may seem like a minefield however, ensuring they are up to date, compliant and agreed upon will lower the workplace risk for the practice and make it easier to manage when things go wrong.
For medical specific contracts for Award employees, please visit our website.