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
- Do you know if an enterprise agreement or other registered agreement applies to your business?
- Do you know the award(s) that apply to your business?
- Do you know about the National Employment Standards (NES)?
- Do you understand the difference between full-time, part-time and casual employment?
- Do you give all new employees the Fair Work Information Statement (FWIS) when they start with you?
- Do you give new casual employees the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) when they start with you?
- Do you know how modern awards, registered agreements, and the NES interact with your employees' contracts of employment?
2. Pay and conditions
- Do you know the minimum hourly rate of pay under your relevant award, enterprise agreement or the national minimum wage for each employee?
- Do you know how to fix a piece rate for your employees?
- Do you know about the new minimum wage guarantee for pieceworkers?
- Do you know about the limited situations where the law allows you to deduct or withhold money from pay owing to employees?
- Do casual employees receive the correct loadings and penalty rates when they perform ordinary time, overtime and weekend work in accordance with the applicable award or registered agreement?
- If employees perform work on weekends, nights or public holidays, do you pay correct penalty rates?
- Do you know the maximum number of hours your employees are allowed to work each week?
- Are employees being paid the correct allowances in accordance with the applicable award or registered agreement?
- Do employees get the correct breaks?
- Do you know how to assess the appropriate rate of pay for a pieceworker?
- Do you have a separate written piecework record (Horticulture Award) or piecework agreement (Wine Award) with each of your pieceworkers?
- Do you know the process for considering a casual employee's request for permanent (full-time or part-time) work?
3. Using labour hire
- Do you know if the providers are certified under any applicable state labour hire licensing schemes?
- Do you know the pay and conditions that the providers are paying the farm workers they provide you?
- Do you ask questions about the providers' workplace practices, including any subcontracting arrangements?
- Do you review your existing contracts with the providers regularly?
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.
- Legal and/or trading name of the employer?
- Your ABN (if you have one)?
- The employee's name?
- Date the employee commenced employment with you?
- Basis on which your employees are employed, eg. full-time, part-time, permanent, temporary or casual?
- The number of hours worked by each employee, including pieceworkers under the Horticulture Award?
- For casual or irregular part-time employees with a guaranteed time-based rate of pay, their hours worked?
- The number of overtime hours worked by each employee entitled to overtime pay, including start and finishing times?
- Rate of pay, including piece rates where relevant?
- Gross and net amounts of pay?
- Any deductions made from gross amounts of pay?
- Details of any incentives, bonuses, loadings, penalties, monetary allowances or other separately identifiable entitlements?
- Leave taken and their accrued leave balance?
- For payments of leave that are cashed out, the rate of pay for the leave cashed out and when the payment was made?
- Superannuation details (eg. amounts contributed and when contribution was made)?
- Copies of any signed piecework records (Horticulture Award) or piecework agreements (Wine Award)?
- Copies of any written agreements with employees for averaging hours of work, cashing out accrued leave, individual flexibility arrangements (including any notice or agreement terminating the agreement) and/or guarantees of annual earnings?
- Records relating to any annualised wage arrangement under an award (including, for example, method of calculation, outer limits on penalty and overtime hours, start times, finish times, and any unpaid breaks).
- For termination of employment, whether the employment terminated by consent, notice, summarily or another way, and who terminated the employment?
- If your employee is a pieceworker, are you confident that you know, and have included, the correct details in their piecework records (Horticulture Award) or piecework agreements (Wine Award) as required by the award?
- Do employees get a pay slip within 1 working day after they are paid?
- Do you include the following details on your employee's pay slip:
- Legal and/or trading name of the employer?
- The employee's name?
- Your ABN (if you have one)?
- Date of payment (e.g. 25/01/2023)?
- Period of payment (e.g. 16/01/2023-22/01/2023)?
- Gross and net amounts of pay?
- Any incentives, bonuses, loadings, penalties, monetary allowances or other separately identifiable amounts paid?
- Any leave taken in the pay period?
Important: Pay slips must not mention paid family and domestic violence leave, however you do need to keep a record of this leave balance and any leave taken by employees. - For employees paid an hourly rate – the ordinary hourly rate of pay, number of hours worked at that rate, and the amount of payment at that rate?
- For employees paid an annual rate (salary) – the rate at the last day in the payment period?
- Details of any deductions made from the employee's gross pay?
- If required to make superannuation contributions for the employee – the amount of each contribution made or required to be made during the payment period and the name (or the name and number) of the superannuation fund?
5. Ending employment
- Do you know how much notice is required to end employment for full-time, part-time and casual employees?
- Do you know what the law says about withholding pay from your employees if they resign without giving you the required notice?
- If you have less than 15 employees, are you aware of your obligations under the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code?
Results
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- save your favourite pages from our site, including award summaries from Find my award.
Awards, agreements and the National Employment Standards
The national minimum wage and the National Employment Standards (NES) make up the minimum entitlements for employees in Australia. An award, employment contract, enterprise agreement or other registered agreement can't provide for conditions that are less than the national minimum wage or the NES. They can’t exclude the NES.
It's important that you understand where your employees' minimum entitlements come from (minimum wage, award, registered agreement and/or contract of employment) and what you need to do to meet your obligations.
Employees in the horticulture industry are usually covered by the Horticulture Award 
or Wine Industry Award . Labour hire workers can be covered by these awards too.
Find out more:
- Our Introduction to the National Employment Standards fact sheet 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.