For many international businesses wanting to employ in Australia, there are many hoops to jump through and lots of red tape to cut before even setting foot on Australian soil. It’s an arduous process and one that full of risks which is why many companies choose not to proceed with their expansion plans at all. One wrong step could cost businesses their livelihoods.

If you’re an international employer, you’re still required to abide by Australian employment laws. One of the many regulations for employers involves providing new employees with a Fair Work Information Statement as soon as contracts have been signed.

There are too many legal requirements to explain in one article, so we’ve included a few of the Fair Work Information Statement key points below.

Minimum rights and entitlement

Australian employees are entitled to basic rights and protection in their working environment such as minimum pay rates and entitlements as outlined in this National Employment Standards document. In some cases, it’s necessary to set up new workers with a modern award or enterprise agreement to maintain their protection as an employee. You can draw up contracts for new employees to sign if you would like to implement additional employment conditions but you’re not able to offer less rights and entitlements than legally required.

Modern awards

There are 122 industry or occupation awards that cover most Australian workers. Each award contains entitlements such as minimum pay, weekend/public holiday rates, meal break times, flexible working agreements and so on.

Enterprise agreements

These agreements identify employment conditions for your business and its employees. They are negotiated between you as the employer, your workers and any other employee representative such as a union representative. Each negotiation must follow a set of strict guidelines that are approved by the Fair Work Commission Deleted

 National Employment Standards (NES)

There are a total of 10 minimum workplace entitlements you must become accustomed with before you employ in Australia. We can help you comply to all entitlements as listed in the  Fair Work Information Statement.

What you may not know as an international employer hiring in Australia is that casual employees are only entitled to a select few of the NES entitlements. For instance, they are permitted to two days unpaid carer’s leave for each occasion and up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. Casual workers are also entitled to five days unpaid family/domestic violence leave every year.

These are just a handful of the Fair Work requirements to get your head around as an international business owner looking to hire Australian workers here in Australia. Next week we’ll cover the remaining points from the Fair Work Information Statement.

What many businesses don’t know is that global expansion into Australia doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. Local PEO agencies like Australia PEO, who are on the ground and have the necessary local knowledge, skills and expertise to help you expand, can assist in setting up operations here in Australia and hire Australian workers, without having to build a physical entity here to do so. We do all the hard work in ticking the Fair Work boxes, so you can concentrate on other areas of your business that require your attention to scale internationally

Stay tuned for next week’s article, where we talk about what else you need to know before hiring workers in Australia.

Want to know how Australia PEO services can help build a tailored plan to help you expand into the Australian market? Contact us today.