Both employees and employers have responsibilities to each other. These will change depending on the type of employment, but we've listed some of the most basic and common responsibilities of each party below.
Students must:
- Inform the employer if they're unable to attend.
- Arrive at work at the agreed time.
- Use their skills and knowledge, and personal characteristics, to do their work.
- Do what their employer reasonably asks them to do.
- Do their work with care.
- Behave reasonably.
- Act in good faith and with honesty.
- Keep themselves and others safe when they're at work.
Employers must:
- Communicate expectations effectively with the student.
- Provide a written employment agreement.
- Pay the amount stated in their employment agreement, which must be at least the legal minimum wage.
- Act in good faith and with honesty.
- Provide holidays and leave (or 8% holiday pay included in their wages if applicable).
- Treat students fairly and use a proper process to dismiss them or make them redundant.
- Provide a safe workplace with proper training, supervision and equipment.
Employers can't:
- Deduct money from wages unlawfully.
- Ask the student to pay them for giving them a job.
- Demand to keep a student's passport.
- Ask students to be available for work without giving them payments or some guaranteed hours of work.
- Make the student do a 90-day trial period at the start of a new job if the employer has 19 or fewer employees unless certain conditions are met.
- Discriminate against or adversely treat students.
More information can be found here:
- Types of employees (definition of types including part time and casual)
- Employment rights and responsibilities (minimum rights of employees)
