Employment and contractor clauses

Pay and entitlements

Remuneration sets the salary or rate and how it is paid, bonus sets any discretionary or target based payment, and overtime says whether extra hours are paid separately or absorbed into a salary. Superannuation covers the employer's contribution, and leave covers annual, personal and other leave. In Australia most of these sit under the Fair Work Act, the National Employment Standards and any award or enterprise agreement, so the pages say where a clause only restates the minimum and where it can genuinely give more. Read remuneration and overtime together, since a salary that absorbs overtime still has to pass the award test.

Starting, changing and ending

Probation sets a trial period at the start, notice period sets how much warning either side gives to end the job, and garden leave lets an employer keep paying someone while keeping them away from work during that notice. Redundancy covers what happens when a role is no longer needed, including consultation and redundancy pay. Flexible work covers requests to change hours or location, which some employees have a legal right to make. These clauses interact, so a notice period that is shorter than the legal minimum simply does not work.

Restraints and contractors

Non compete, non solicitation and restraint of trade limit what someone can do after leaving, and courts only enforce them to the extent they protect a real business interest for a reasonable time and area. The independent contractor clause is different in kind: it states that a person is not an employee, but the label does not decide the question, which turns on how the relationship actually works. Read that page before hiring a contractor on a long or exclusive arrangement. Each page carries sample wording and variants, and none of it is legal advice.

Every page in this collection

• Bonus clause: discretionary, formula or both

  A bonus promised in an offer and described loosely in a contract is one of the most argued payments at the end of a job. The clause decides whether a departing employee walks away with a pro rata share or with nothing, so the leaver rule matters as much as the target.

• Garden leave clause: paid notice away from the business

  When a senior salesperson resigns to join a rival, the last thing the business wants is three more months of client meetings. Garden leave solves that problem, but only cleanly when the contract gave the employer the right to use it.

• Independent contractor clause and the test behind it

  Calling someone a contractor is the easy part of a contractor agreement. The clause earns its place only when the terms around it, and the daily reality of the work, point the same way.

• Leave entitlements clause in an employment contract

  Leave is where a contract most often promises something the law already gives, or quietly offers less. A clause that names each entitlement, points to the statutory floor and says what is extra settles most leave disputes before a request is ever refused.

• Non compete clause: wording, enforceability and reform

  The live question with a non compete is rarely whether it was signed, but how much of it would survive a challenge. Since September 2026 there is a second question, because draft federal legislation would ban the clause for most workers.

• Non solicitation clause for clients and staff

  Most businesses worry less about where a departing account manager works next than about which clients and colleagues follow. A well drafted non solicitation clause targets exactly that, which is why it is often the restraint that survives when a broader one fails.

• Notice period clause in an employment contract

  Notice is the clause most people read only on the day they need it. By then its two numbers, what the employer owes and what the employee owes, decide the final pay, the last day and sometimes when a new job can start.

• Overtime clause: paid, time off or built into salary

  A salary that covers reasonable additional hours sounds tidy until a busy quarter pushes those hours past what the award would have paid for. The overtime clause is where that gap is either measured and paid or quietly left to grow.

• Probation period clause in an employment contract

  A probation clause is most useful as a promise to review performance at a set point and say so in writing. It is least useful when someone believes it lets a job end without notice or protection, because neither is true.

• Redundancy clause in an Australian employment contract

  Redundancy is the one ending where both sides agree nobody did anything wrong, which is why the payment and the process carry all the weight. A clause that commits to consultation, redeployment and a clear calculation makes a hard conversation shorter and the result easier to defend.

• Remote work clause: hybrid, fully remote or by request

  Hybrid arrangements agreed over a coffee tend to unravel when a manager changes or the lease on the office does. A clause that names the days, the workspace rules and the notice needed to change them protects the arrangement for both sides.

• Remuneration clause: the pay terms in an employment contract

  Most pay disputes start with one ambiguous word, usually package, inclusive or review. A remuneration clause that states the base figure, what sits on top of it and what a review does and does not promise leaves nothing to interpret on the first pay slip.

• Restraint of trade clause and how a cascade is built

  Australian drafters cannot know in advance which period and area a judge will accept, so they write several and let the court choose. That device, the cascading restraint, is useful, frequently criticised, and now the subject of federal consultation.

• Superannuation clause in an Australian employment contract

  Superannuation clauses written before 1 July 2026 often promise quarterly contributions, a timing that no longer meets the law. A clause that refers to the guarantee rate and the payday deadline, rather than to fixed dates, stays correct when the rules move again.