In December last year, the government passed a new law called the Fair Work Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. This law includes new rules about pay secrecy and job ads. The new laws give employees the right to share or not share information about their pay, and they ban pay secrecy terms in employment contracts and other workplace instruments. The laws also say that job ads can’t have pay rates that are lower than the legal minimum for the job. There are new templates for employment agreements and job ads that follow these new laws, and these can be found on the website of the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The take-aways for business owners regarding the Fair Work Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 are:
- Employees have the right to share or not share information about their pay, so employers should not include pay secrecy terms in employment contracts or other workplace instruments.
- Job ads cannot have pay rates lower than the legal minimum entitlements that apply to the job.
- Business owners should use the updated template employment agreements and job advertisement template provided by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) to ensure they are in compliance with the new laws.
- Additional resources regarding these laws can be found on the FWO’s templates webpage. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/templates
- Business owners should stay updated and comply with the new laws in order to avoid legal issues and fines.
