Last modified 01/26/2024

The Australian employers rather have employees who are already used to the Australian work market, which is why they usually hire immigrant workers with the Casual Work contract and after three months, depending on the abilities and skills of the immigrant, as well as his or her good command of the English language, they can make it much easier for them accessing to good permanent jobs, using for that the Full Time Work, with better work conditions and rights acknowledgement.

The Australian work market is very competitive for their condition of developed country and for having a highly skilled working force, which is always trying to keep itself updated through continuous capacitating and permanent skill development, because the Australian businessmen rather have prepared staff than having to prepare them and having to take time from their working time, then been forced to pay him or her for extra hours.

The Australian businessmen rather have workers who are able of commanding several tasks at the same time, with the purpose of handling them multitask activities, which is why they only accept workers who are adequately qualified to develop an activity and in the case of the immigrants, the same situation is going on; which is why it is always recommended to immigrants that the first thing they should do when arriving to Australia is finding a job, which will allow them to understand and get to know how are the conditions and demands of the Australian work market.

Is in this context in which the types of work contracts are developed in the Australian work market, which are known as Casual Works or temporal jobs by contract, Full Time Work and the Part Time Work.

The Casual Work Contract, is the most common kind of job in Australia, which does not imply the subscription of a formal job contract, it is simply the fulfilling of a Timesheet, in which the number of hours worked a week are written down for payment effects and that the businessmen and the worker have as an agreement sign.

The advantages of this type of contract known as Casual Work, are related to the salary, which is pretty high regarding the salaries of related full time jobs. The disadvantages of this type of Casual Work, are referred to the fact that it does not guarantee permanence or working continuity after finishing the contract, which usually does not even reach the three months of duration, it does not give any kind of benefits like vacations, it does not acknowledge resting periods for any sickness and the working week always goes over the 40 worked hours.

It is necessary to highlight that in this type of Casual Work, the price or value of the worked hour is not only in relation with the type of work, but also to the abilities shown by the employer, to the command of the English language and the qualifications he or she might show.

The search for a Casual Work is usually performed in the newspapers for Tourism, Hotel and Catering Trade and Restaurants, whose characteristics make possible the requirement of skilled working force.

Usually, in this type of contract of temporal work or Casual Work, it is used as a trial period, so then the immigrant can access a Full Time Work.

The Full Time Work allows the immigrant accessing to working rights and receiving benefits. Because of its condition of a permanent contract, the immigrant will have to work for 40 hours a week; he or she will receive payments for any extra hour worked; he or she will have right to have paid vacations; if he or she gets sick, medical rest will be acknowledged, and, the most important part is that the immigrant get the right to have a retirement fund.

The Full Time Work, has an inferior amount of salary per hour in comparison with the one offered in a worked hour through the Casual Work contract.
 
There is another type of contract, known as the Part Time Work Contract and it, many times, is confused with the Casual Work Contract, but the great difference between them is that in this type of contract you do sign a contract for a predetermined amount of time, inclusively in the days but less than the 40 hours per week established by law. It acknowledges vacations, medical dismissals, but the salary is less, due to the acknowledgement of those formalities.

In all the types of contracts, Casual Work, Full Time Work and in the Part Time Work, the salaries are subject to the tax discounts that the Australian law establishes for any kind of earnings.

There are other kinds of variations in the contracts, such as the Job Sharing, which consists in two workers sharing the same job, splitting the days and work hours per week between them.

The Flexible Time Contract can also be used, which is a combination of the Part Time Work and the Job Sharing, which consists in the employer and the employee reaching an agreement for the development of the job in a flexible schedule.

It is important to highlight that the working relations in the Full Time Work and in the Part Time Work Contracts, in most of the Australian states and territories, with the Victory State as an exception, are governed by a federal and / or state award, whose fulfillment is mandatory for employers, been the Award Wage the one in charge of stipulating the conditions of the minimum wage.

Been Australia a country in which the worker’s fundamental rights are sheltered, the presence of unions has made possible the negotiation with employers and obtaining Certified Agreements, which ensure adequate salaries and work conditions. Also, for those workers who are not interested in joining a union and negotiate directly with their employers the salary and the work conditions, there is the Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA).

The benefits, to which the worker accesses through the subscription to contracts such as the Full Time Work and the Part Time Work, are the following:
Annual Leave, which consists in a 4 – week holiday rest per each year of continuous work. It can be traded for its equivalent in money up to half of the holiday rest.
Parental Leave, which, at the same time, is subdivided into Maternity Leave and Paternity Leave, which is given for the birth of sons and it cannot be given at the same time. This kind of license can reach up to 52 weeks, but during the time it is given the worker does not receive any salary. It can also be requested by adoptive parents, known as the Adoption Leave or license for adoptive parents.
License for Caretakers or Personal Leave, which consists in a non – paid license for 10 days for the worker to be able to treat a disease or to take care of a direct family member, who might be sick or, also, for the death of a family member.
Long Service Leave, which consists in the employer giving up to 13 weeks of license to his or her employees for having worked 15 or more years of continuous work, depending on the state or territory in which they might reside.

The Retirement Plan or Superannuation, which consists in the businessmen effecting cash deposits, which are the equivalent to the 9% of the worker’s salary in retirement funds, chosen by the employee.

The Eligible Termination Payment, also known as ETP, means that, in any case of illegal dismiss, lay off or unjustified dismiss, the employer must deposit an amount of money for non – used benefits.

Summing up, the work contracts in Australia are different because of their duration time, the hours worked per week and the acknowledgement of working rights such as a laboral working week of 40 hours, holiday rest, medical rest, payment for extra hours worked, annual leave, parental leave, license for caretakers or personal leave, long service leave, right to retirement plans and acknowledgement of unused benefits in the case of been fired.