Placement employment contracts.
Fair Work compliant at volume.
Staffing agencies issue employment contracts at scale. Each placement has different Award coverage, employment type, and term conditions. Kontractually reviews placement contracts in batch - checking every Fair Work obligation before issue.
No credit card required. First 3 reviews free.
What changes when you review every placement contract.
You place 30 candidates in a single month across three different industries. Each placement uses your standard template. Six months later, Fair Work contacts you - two placements in hospitality were under the wrong Modern Award. Underpayment liability: $18,000 plus penalties.
Kontractually checks each placement contract against industry-specific Award coverage rules in your playbook. When the candidate's duties don't match the Award specified in the contract, it flags the mismatch before you issue the contract.
A long-term casual placement has been working regular hours at one client site for 14 months. The candidate requests permanent conversion under the Fair Work Act. You discover the employment contract has no casual conversion clause and no systematic review process. You're in breach of your employer obligations.
Kontractually flags casual employment contracts that are missing casual conversion clauses and the required 12-month review notification. You include compliant conversion terms in every casual placement contract from day one.
A client hires one of your placed contractors directly, bypassing the non-solicitation clause in your client agreement. You try to enforce it, but the clause has no defined duration and covers 'all personnel' rather than specifically placed candidates. Your lawyer says it's likely unenforceable.
Kontractually reviews non-solicitation clauses in both client-facing and candidate-facing contracts. It flags clauses with enforceability risks - no time limit, overly broad scope, or definitions that don't match the specific placement relationship.
6 Fair Work obligations for staffing placement contracts.
In most staffing arrangements, the staffing agency is the employer and issues the employment contract directly to the placed worker. The client receives the worker's services under a separate client service agreement with the staffing agency. This means the staffing agency bears the Fair Work Act employer obligations - including NES compliance, Award minimum wages, and super guarantee - even if the worker is placed with a client for years.
A template is a starting point, but each placement should be reviewed for the applicable Modern Award, correct employment classification (permanent, casual, or contractor), and role-specific terms. Kontractually lets you review a batch of placement contracts against your standard playbook to catch deviations, outdated rates, and classification issues efficiently.
Placing a candidate under the wrong Modern Award means every pay rate, allowance, and entitlement in the contract may be incorrect. If the correct Award provides higher minimum rates, the staffing agency is liable for underpayment from day one of the placement - regardless of what the contract says. The Fair Work Ombudsman can audit staffing agencies and issue compliance notices. Penalties for Award non-compliance include back-pay orders, interest, and fines up to $93,900 per contravention for companies. For volume placement agencies, one systemic Award classification error can affect dozens of placements simultaneously. Kontractually checks the role description and industry classification against your Award coverage rules to flag potential mismatches before the contract is issued.
The Fair Work Act amendments limit the use of fixed-term contracts to a maximum of 2 years (including renewals) or 2 consecutive fixed-term contracts for the same role. After that, the employee must be offered permanent employment or the engagement must end. For staffing agencies, this affects long-term project placements and rolling fixed-term arrangements that were previously common. Each fixed-term contract must include a Fixed Term Contract Information Statement provided to the employee before or as soon as practicable after the contract starts. Kontractually tracks fixed-term duration and renewal count in your placement contracts and flags when a placement is approaching the 2-year or 2-contract limit.
Staffing agencies must pay superannuation guarantee (currently 11.5% of ordinary time earnings) for all placed employees - including casual employees. Since July 2022, the $450 monthly earnings threshold was removed, meaning super is payable from the first dollar earned regardless of hours worked. For contractor placements, super may still be required if the contractor is engaged 'wholly or principally for labour' under the extended definition. This catches many staffing arrangements where the contractor provides personal services without significant tools, equipment, or delegation rights. Kontractually flags placement contracts where the engagement structure may trigger super guarantee obligations that aren't accounted for in your pricing or contract terms.
Related