We are interested in offering internships to international students. What are the employment conditions that need to be provided for international students? What is the best type of contract to use for internships with international students?
From a workplace relations perspective, all employees that are permitted to work in Australia are entitled to the same conditions under employment law. This is regardless of the different immigration status that any individual worker may have. Naturally, this would include relevant coverage of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). This would also mean that any worker that would be covered by an industrial instrument because of the virtue of the work that they perform (such as an enterprise agreement or a modern award) would be entitled to the minimum conditions of those industrial instruments.
We note that the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) starts with the position that all workers performing work must be paid the appropriate rate. Only ‘vocational placements’ can be unpaid as per section 12 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) defines the term "vocational placement" as a placement that is undertaken with an employer for which a person is not entitled to be paid any remuneration. A vocational placement must also be undertaken as a requirement of an education or training course and authorised under a law or an administrative arrangement of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.
An example of a vocational placement would be where a student was completing a Master of Psychology (Clinical) and receiving formal credit for a subject in that university degree by completing a placement with an organisation. We further note that interns that are not performing any work that is of benefit to a member (for example, where they are purely observing work being performed by other people) would not need to be paid.
Having said this, there will be various immigration matters that must be considered before accepting international workers. For further advice on these issues, employers may find it helpful to receive anonymous advice from the Department of Immigration phone line on 13 18 81.
The best type of employment contract for an employer to use is one that best reflects the arrangements that they seek to create.There is no one specific employment contract that exists for internships. However, it is most likely that an internship that will last for a limited duration would be best governed by an employment contract for a specified period of time. Such contracts are often colloquially referred to as ‘fixed term’ contractsor internships with international students.
Clinton is the Publications Manager at Ai Group. He is responsible for a number of key services including Annotated Modern Awards, Workplace Relations Handbooks and the management of Ai Group’s HR and Health & Safety Resource Centres. Clinton has a Masters in Employment Relations and previously held advisory roles with the Workplace Authority and Fair Work Ombudsman.
