National Employment Standards

The National Employment Standards (the NES), together with modern awards, form the safety net of conditions for employees under the national system. The NES apply to all employees, whether award-covered, agreement-covered or award/agreement free.

This handbook covers each of the NES entitlements:

• Maximum weekly hours
• Requests for flexible working arrangements
• Offers and requests for casual conversion
• Parental leave and related entitlements
• Annual leave
• Personal/carer's leave, compassionate leave, and family and domestic violence leave
• Community service leave
• Long service leave
• Public holidays
• Notice of termination and redundancy pay
• The Fair Work Information Statement and Casual Employment Information Statement.

Some of the features of this publication include:

• Information on how each of the entitlements interacts with contracts of employment, modern awards and enterprise agreements
• Examples of common modern award clauses and how they affect the NES entitlements
• Case examples to illustrate how the NES entitlements operate in practice
• Information on notice and documentary requirements for paid sick leave and other forms of leave
• An overview of how the NES are affected by the broad “transfer of business” rules under the Fair Work Act
• An overview of record keeping obligations under the Fair Work legislation.

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Updating service

To keep our Workplace Relations Handbooks current and with the latest information, we provide an annual updating service. 

All purchases of the National Employment Standards Handbook include a free subscription to the corresponding updating service for the remainder of the financial year in which the Handbook was bought.

Before the start of the following financial year you will receive an invoice inviting you to continue your annual updating subscription.