Compliance Requirement: Fair Work Information Statements
To support awareness of Australian employment laws, the Fair Work Ombudsman has created and regularly updates its Fair Work Information Statements. These Information Statements contain essential details on minimum workplace entitlements and obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act). Every employer must be able to demonstrate they have provided this information to all employees before, or as soon as possible after they start a new job.
The Fair Work Information Statements are tailored to the different types of employment arrangements so the law requires that all businesses must provide:
- The latest Fair Work Information Statement – to all employees and when relevant, they must also provide either;
- The latest Casual Employment Information Statement – for all casual employees or
- The latest Fixed Term Contract Information Statement – for all employees being offered employment that terminates at the end of a set period (i.e. fixed-term / maximum-term contracts).
From a HR compliance point of view, issuing the Fair Work Information Statement is one of the simplest problems to solve and reduces your business being exposed to significant penalties.
The penalties for not providing these documents can be up to $19,800 per contravention for an individual and $99,000 per contravention for companies.
Solution 1: Provide the documents manually
The first option is to provide documents manually to your employees to satisfy this requirement and/or provide a link to the Fair Work website within employment contracts. This is the simplest option to ensure immediate compliance, but it does require you to regularly monitor the Fair Work website for when these links/documents are updated.
The documents you need can be found here:
Solution 2: Automation
Many HR systems have built-in automated workflows which take care of this for you. These workflows typically allow the employee to read and acknowledge the documents so your business has a record of which, and when, your employees are compliant.
When looking for a system, our recommendation is to ensure it ticks as many of the following boxes as possible:
- Does the system make you aware when newer versions of the documents are available?
- Can the employee access to the latest versions of the documents at any time?
- Does the employee get notified when newer versions of the documents are available?
- Is the employee required to read and acknowledge the documents?
- Does the employee receive regular reminders if they have not yet read and acknowledged the documents?
- Is the system backed by experts in Australian employment law?
Your HR System
Your HR System has tackled this problem with its HR Policy feature. We automate the sign-off process and keep you up to date with the latest documents that are required by Australian employment law. Our team of experts proactively update these documents in the background ensuring that your business is never at risk of a fine.
If you want to learn more about, please reach out and one of our HR Consultants will be in contact with you.