What's not okay?
- Unpaid work trials are generally against the law. You should not ask people to work for free.
- You should pay employees for all the hours they work, including meetings or training and the time they spend opening and closing the business.
- Not giving someone a pay slip. Employees should get a pay slip within 1 working day of being paid.
- Employees should start and finish their shift at the rostered time no matter how busy or quiet it is. This is unless you both agree otherwise.
- Offering goods or services (including food) instead of pay.
Undue influence or pressure and coercion
It's unlawful to unduly influence or pressure an employee to:
- make / not make an agreement or arrangement under the National Employment Standards (NES).
- make / not make an agreement or arrangement under a term of a modern award or enterprise agreement that is permitted to be included in the award or agreement
- agree to, or terminate an individual flexibility arrangement
- agree / not agree to have money deducted from their pay
- accept a guarantee of annual earnings.
It's also unlawful to:
- coerce another person or 3rd party to exercise / not exercise a workplace right
- coerce another person or 3rd party to exercise a workplace right in a particular way
- coerce another person or 3rd party to engage in industrial activity.
However, protected industrial action will not amount to coercive conduct.
Unlawful termination
National workplace laws make it illegal to dismiss an employee on a range of grounds (except where related to the inherent requirements of the position concerned).
These grounds include:
- a person's race, colour, sex, sexual preference, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family or carer's responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin
- temporary absence from work because of illness or injury
- trade union membership or participation in trade union activities outside working hours, or with the employer’s consent, during working hours
- non-membership of a trade union
- seeking office as, or acting or having acted as, a representative of employees
- being absent from work during maternity leave or other parental leave
- temporary absence from work to participate in a voluntary emergency management activity, where the absence is reasonable in all the circumstances
- filing a complaint, or participating in proceedings, against an employer who allegedly has breached the law.
Freedom of association
All employers, employees and independent contractors are free to become, or not become, members of an industrial association, such as a union or employer body.
A person cannot take adverse action against another person because they do or don't belong to an industrial association or because they do or don't engage in certain industrial activity.
Can I pay my employee in cash?
You can pay your employees in the form of cash, a cheque, bank deposit or one of the other methods allowed by the law.
It's okay to pay your employee in cash, as long as you’ve taken tax from their earnings and paid it to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). 'Cash in hand' - when you pay an employee without taking tax out - is against taxation law.
Employee or independent contractor?
Employees work for another person under a contract of employment in return for pay.
Independent contracting is where one business does work for another business.
Generally, independent contractors will use their own equipment, choose what hours they work, decide how they do the work, pay their own tax and have an Australian Business Number (ABN).
Some employers disguise an employment relationship as an independent contracting arrangement to avoid paying legal minimum rates of pay, tax and entitlements, such as annual leave and sick leave. This is called 'sham contracting' and is against the law.