Hours of work clause for an Australian employment contract

Sample clause

Written for full time employment contract for a client services coordinator at Riverbend Physiotherapy Pty Ltd, a fictional Brisbane clinic.

Hours of Work. (a) The Employee's ordinary hours are 38 a week, worked Monday to Friday between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm on a roster set by the Practice Manager, with an unpaid 30 minute meal break each day. (b) The Employer may change the roster by giving at least 7 days' notice, or less by agreement. (c) The Employer may ask the Employee to work reasonable additional hours. The Employee may refuse if they are unreasonable, having regard to the factors in section 62 of the Fair Work Act 2009. (d) The Employee's salary compensates for reasonable additional hours worked, except where the Award requires overtime to be paid. (e) The Employee may refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from the Employer outside working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable.

Sample wording, not legal advice.

Variants

What to negotiate

• What makes extra hours reasonable

  Section 62 lists factors for deciding whether additional hours are reasonable, including risk to health and safety, the employee's personal circumstances and family responsibilities, the needs of the workplace, whether the employee is paid for them, notice given, and the usual patterns in the industry. A clause that mirrors these helps both sides judge a request.

• Salary that absorbs hours

  A salary that is said to cover reasonable additional hours only works if it actually does. If an award applies, the employer must still pay at least what the award would have paid for the hours worked, including overtime, which is why annualised salary clauses need regular reconciliations.

• The right to disconnect

  Since 26 August 2024, and since 26 August 2025 for small business employers, employees may refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from their employer or a third party outside working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable. A clause can acknowledge it and set expectations for genuine emergencies or on call periods.

The risk of leaving it out

A contract without an hours clause leaves ordinary hours, rosters and additional hours to argument and to the award. Employers risk underpaying overtime that an award requires, and employees have no fixed point to measure unreasonable demands against. Both make wage underpayment claims and disputes about rosters more likely.

The 38 hour maximum

Section 62 of the Fair Work Act 2009 says an employer must not request or require a full time employee to work more than 38 hours a week unless the additional hours are reasonable. For part time employees the limit is the lesser of 38 hours and their ordinary hours. Awards and agreements can allow ordinary hours to be averaged over a longer period, and for award free employees section 64 allows averaging by written agreement over up to 26 weeks. Law checked on 21 October 2026. This page explains how the law works and is not legal advice.

Rosters and breaks

The contract usually sets the span of hours and refers to a roster; the award sets minimum notice for roster changes, meal breaks and rest breaks. The part time employment example records a regular pattern of 24 ordinary hours a week, with start and finish times and unpaid meal breaks for each day, because the relevant award requires the pattern to be agreed in writing. Full time contracts often leave the days to the roster within a span.

Additional hours and overtime

Additional hours beyond ordinary hours may attract overtime rates under an award. A salaried employee not covered by an award, or paid well above it, may have a salary that compensates for reasonable additional hours, but only if the contract says so and the salary covers it. The Fair Work Ombudsman's hours of work guidance explains how the NES and awards fit together.

Where the clause sits in a generated document

Employment contracts, part time agreements and offer letters carry this clause early, after the role and start date. When asking the AI document generator for one, give the ordinary hours, the days and span, the roster notice, the additional hours rule, whether salary absorbs them, and the award that applies.

Documents that carry this clause

Employment contractA full time ongoing contract for an operations coordinator on $86,000 plus $10,320 of superannuation. Eleven numbered clauses, a leave table drawn from the National Employment Standards, and a notice table that scales with service.Part time employment contract template with set hours and pro rata leaveA part time employment contract template has to do something a full time contract does not: fix the regular days and hours in writing, because Australian awards require it for part time staff, and show how every leave entitlement is scaled to those hours. This one does both for a bookseller working 24 hours over three days.Fixed term employment contract template with the end date and its reasonA fixed term employment contract template sets a real end date and the reason the job ends then, so both sides know the employment stops without a dismissal. Since December 2023 an Australian contract also has to stay inside the Fair Work Act limits on length and renewal, and the employee must be given the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement.

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