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Jodiebee
02-05-2013, 12:37 PM
Hi Everyone,

I hope that you are all well.

We are an old established company with high levels of tenure and retention and an audit of personnel files recently revealed that some of our long term employees do not have / have never had Employment Contracts, that some contracts are illegal and some are just downright messy (!)

What are your valuable thoughts on this :

To ensure that the company is meeting its obligations and responsibilities under the Fair Work Act and the National Employment Standards the decision has been made to provide all employees with a modern and legislatively compliant Employment Contract.

The issuing of Employment Contracts will in NO WAY erode, affect or compromise your existing employment Terms and Conditions and employment benefits. Your salary will not change and neither will any of the entitlements you currently enjoy.

The Terms and Conditions stipulated in the Employment Contract are the exact Terms and Conditions that your currently employment relationship is bound by.

It is in both the company’s and our people’s best interests to ensure that there is always a current Employment Contract on file and this being the reason that the company has made the decision to issue you with an Employment Contract.

Look forward to your comments.

Kind Regards
JB

Qld IR Consultant
02-05-2013, 03:22 PM
Short answer is Yes. Secondly, communicate it exactly the way you have posted this. Be open and honest with the employees. Explain it in detail. Do it in a non-confrontational environment, allow them to have a witness/support person present if they wish. Make the experience as pleasurable as possible and you won't have any issues.

Comes down to basic communications skills...... Good Luck!!

Tiger
03-05-2013, 12:02 PM
Further to Qld IR Consultant's advice, if you think you might have some difficult employees in the mix who you know will challenge, it might be helpful to include in your information sessions, a recent employee who was employed using the contract template you plan to use for all. Select a newbie who you feel confident is able to speak to the format (if needed) - it could be someone who has changed jobs a few times in the past several years so could speak to the fact that this is what companies now do. If coming from a peer, it might help ease your transition of the longer tenured employees.

And naturally, you would be including the FWA Fact Sheet in all the contracts and you could, in your comms sessions, show that on a slide for example, with a link to FWA website in case you have any disbelievers.

Tiger

NicoleAnita
03-05-2013, 05:50 PM
I agree. Dd this in a company not long ago. Not many issues except a few senior employees who where suspicious but we did the same thing via a one on one meeting to ensure any personal or sensitive information was clarified. This was an option of course.

As Tiger said ensure you give them a copy of the FWA facts sheet and a link to the website could put some at ease as this helps you appear honest and transparent.

Good luck.

Jodiebee
07-05-2013, 03:20 PM
Thanks everyone. As always great advice : )