Self-audit checklist
Using our interactive tool, growers can check their knowledge of workplace rights and obligations, and get tailored help where they identify gaps.
This tool helps to make meeting your workplace obligations quicker and easier in two simple steps:
1. Answer some questions about your workplace practices.
2. Get information and resources tailored to you and your business.
Your answers are anonymous and you can export your results.
Please go here to access an accessible version of the self-audit checklist.
1. Awards, agreements and the National Employment Standards
2. Pay and conditions
3. Using labour hire
If you source labour from a labour hire provider:
4. Record-keeping and pay slips
- Do you include these details in your employee records? Note: you can keep manual
and/or electronic records, but they must be clear, in English, accurate and
accessible.
- Do you include the following details on your employee's pay slip:
5. Ending employment
Results
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to get information tailored for your business. You'll also be able to:
- save results from our Pay, Shift, Leave and Notice and Redundancy Calculators
- submit an enquiry to ask for our help with complex questions or resolving workplace issues
- save your favourite pages from our site, including award summaries from Find my award.
Awards, agreements and the National Employment Standards
The National Employment Standards (NES) are minimum employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees in the national workplace relations system. This is regardless of the award, registered agreement or employment contract that applies.
The National Minimum Wage applies to employees not covered by an award or registered agreement. Employees who are award or agreement-free will receive at least the national minimum wage for all hours worked. If you're covered by an award or agreement, the National Minimum Wage doesn’t apply.
Employees covered by an award or registered agreement are entitled to the minimum pay rates, including penalty rates and allowances, in their award or agreement. These pay rates may be higher than the National Minimum Wage.
Some minimum award wages may be less than the National Minimum Wage. For example, some awards, including the Horticulture Award and Wine Industry Award, contain introductory pay rates for new employees in their industry. These rates generally apply for a limited time until an employee progresses to the next level.
Go to Minimum wages for more information.
Find out more:
- Our National Employment Standards page will teach you about the minimum standards of employment in Australia, and how they apply to your business.
- Our Find My Award tool will help you find which award (or awards) apply to your business.
- Our Casual, part-time and full-time employees page sets out the different types of employment.
- Our Awards and agreements section explains how our modern awards and agreements work together to set minimum conditions for Australian employees. There is also information in this section about employment contracts .
- Our Fair Work Information Statement page lets you download the Statement and explains how you must provide it to your employees on their first day.
- Our Casual Employment Information Statement page lets you download the Statement and explains how you must provide it to your casual employees on their first day.
Pay and conditions
Remember, it is important that horticulture and wine workers get the right pay rate for the type of work they do. The following resources will help you learn more about minimum pay and conditions:
- Use our Pay calculator to work out pay rates, penalties and allowances.
- Our Pay & piece rates page provides information about minimum pay rates, hourly rates, piece rates and more.
- Our information on How to use piecework rates can help you set piece rates and create piecework records or agreements with your employees. You can also use our Horticulture piecework record template or Wine Industry piecework agreement template .
- Our pay guides for the Horticulture Award and the Wine Industry Award . If you are unsure which award covers your business, check our Find my award tool .
- Our Hours of work and overtime page provides information about maximum hours of work, shiftwork, overtime and public holidays in the horticulture industry.
- In this section, you'll also find information about when employees get breaks, leave and time off in lieu .
- Our Becoming a permanent employee page sets out the rules for employers and employees on the process of casual conversion.
Using labour hire
If you source labour for your workplace through a third party provider like a labour hire company, it pays to know how it all works. It is important to make sure that all contractors in your supply chain are following workplace laws and that workers are receiving their lawful entitlements, including correct pay and leave.
The following links and resources can help you manage your labour hire arrangements:
- Our Sourcing labour page provides information about where to find employees, what labour contracting is, and your obligations to ensure your workers are legally allowed to work in Australia.
- Our Pay & piece rates page provides information about minimum pay rates, hourly rates, piece rates and more.
- Use our Guide to labour contracting to find information on labour hire laws that may apply as well as learning how to use our 5 easy steps to select a potential contractor.
- Our Guide to monitoring your labour contracting can help you map your existing contracts, examine compliance with workplace laws, and assist you to act on any problems you find.
Record-keeping and Pay Slips
Remember, it's important that growers get record-keeping and pay slips right. The following resources will help you learn more about record-keeping and pay slips for your employees:
- The Record-keeping and pay slips course in our Online Learning Centre will teach you more about your obligation to make and keep accurate records, and how you can easily keep your business records up to date and accurate.
- You can also use our Horticulture piecework record template or Wine Industry piecework agreement template to help you to make records or agreements that meet your award obligations. Find more information on our How to use piece rates page.
- You can use our Templates to help you on a wide range of topics including pay slips and record-keeping, employing staff, hours of work, managing performance and ending employment.
- Our Keeping the right records page explains why record-keeping is important, what records and information you need to make and keep, and gives you access to our resources on record-keeping and pay slips for the horticulture industry or wine industry, so you can find everything you need in the one place.
Ending employment in Horticulture
It's important for growers to know the rules around termination of employment and redundancy. The following resources below will help you learn more about ending employment:
- Our Notice and Redundancy calculator calculates entitlements when employment ends, including notice to be given and redundancy pay.
- Our Ending employment page provides information on giving notice and final pay.
- The Small Business Fair Dismissal Code provides protection for small businesses (with less than 15 employees) against unfair dismissal claims, as long as an employer follows the Code.