First published on Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Last updated on Thursday, October 23, 2025
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A key purpose of the Fair Work Act 2009 is to establish the 12 National Employment Standards (NES). These minimum standards apply to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system, regardless of industry, business size, or individual circumstances.
In this article, we’ll break down each of the National Employment Standards to help you better understand how this legislation impacts your business, contracts, and employees.
Who do the National Employment Standards apply to and what areas do they cover?
The NES apply to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system; however, only certain entitlements apply to casual employees (rules and exclusions apply).
These entitlements include:
Maximum weekly hours of work
Right to request flexible working arrangements
Casual employment and casual conversion rights
Parental leave and related entitlements
Personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave, and family and domestic violence leave
Community service leave
Long service leave
Notice of termination and redundancy pay
Employers must provide the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement
Superannuation contributions
How do the NES apply?
Terms in awards, enterprise agreements and employment contracts cannot exclude or provide for an entitlement less than the NES, and those that do have no effect. However, they can affect the operation of the NES in certain ways.
For example, they may specify terms that address:
Averaging an employee’s ordinary hours of work
The cashing out and taking of paid annual leave
The cashing out of paid sick and carer’s leave
Extra sick and carer’s leave or annual leave in exchange for foregoing an equivalent amount of pay
The substitution of public holidays
Superannuation obligations
Situations in which redundancy entitlements do not apply
Additionally, these agreements may supplement the NES by providing entitlements that are more favourable to employees.
Breaking down the National Employment Standards
Maximum weekly hours of work
The maximum weekly hours of work for a full-time employee is 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
For other employees, the maximum weekly hours is the lesser of 38 hours or the employee’s ordinary hours of work. Importantly, an employer cannot request or require an employee to work more than this unless the additional hours are reasonable.
Factors which determine whether additional hours are reasonable are things like the needs of the business, any risk to the employee’s health and safety, their family responsibilities, and whether the employee is being paid any additional amounts for this time, such as overtime payments.
Requests for flexible working arrangements
Some employees who have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months have the right to change their working arrangements to be more flexible. This may involve changing work locations, hours of work, or working patterns.
The following employees are eligible to request flexible working arrangements:
Parents, or employees who have responsibility for a child who is school age or younger
Carers
Employees aged 55 or older
Those experiencing family and domestic violence
Those providing care or support to an immediate family or household member experiencing family and domestic violence.
This should not be confused with an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA). An IFA is a written agreement between an employer and employee to change certain clauses in their award or registered agreement (such as an enterprise agreement). Unlike a request for flexible working arrangements, an IFA is available to any employee and has no time limit.
Parental leave and related entitlements
Under the NES, parental leave applies to employees who have, or expect to have, responsibility for the care of a child. Employees must complete at least 12 months of continuous service with their employer to be eligible.
Eligible employees can access a range of parental leave entitlements, including:
Birth-related leave and adoption-related leave (including in cases of premature birth, stillbirth, or infant death)
Unpaid special maternity leave
The right to transfer to a safe job
Employer consultation requirements
A return-to-work guarantee
Unpaid pre-adoption leave
The right to request an extension of unpaid parental leave for up to 12 additional months (subject to employer agreement)
Flexible unpaid parental leave (which can be taken in separate periods up to the child’s second birthday).
Annual leave
A permanent employee (part-time, full-time) is entitled to 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service with their employer. It accumulates on the ordinary hours they work and throughout sick/carer’s leave, long service leave and community service leave.
Certain shift workers are entitled to 5 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service with their employer.
Personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave, and family and domestic violence leave
This leave is provided to employees who are facing personal illness/injury, have caring responsibilities, family emergencies, domestic violence and serious illness/death of immediate family members.
Full-time employees are entitled to the following (pro-rata for part-time employees):
10 days paid personal/carer’s leave
2 days unpaid carer’s leave as required
2 days paid compassionate leave as required
10 days paid family and domestic violence leave (in a 12-month period)
It's important to note that personal/carer’s leave accrues from the first day and carries over yearly, while paid family and domestic violence leave is available as needed and resets annually.
Community service leave
The NES entitles employees to unpaid leave for voluntary emergency management activities and paid leave for jury service.
Employees undertaking voluntary emergency activities can take as much leave as required to participate in the activity plus associated travel and rest time, with no set limit on total leave.
Employees participating in jury service are entitled to up to 10 days of paid leave (make-up pay for non-casual employees). Any jury service beyond 10 days is unpaid under the NES, although some awards or state laws may provide additional entitlements.
Long service leave
Employees, including casual employees, who have been with the same employer for a long period of time may be entitled to long service leave.
Depending on the relevant State/Territory law or award/agreement, an employee may be entitled to long service leave after continuous service ranging from 7 to 15 years with the same or a related employer.
Public holidays
Under the NES, permanent employees (full-time and part-time) are entitled to paid days off work on public holidays. It allows an employee to reasonably refuse to work on a public holiday, while still receiving payment.
Paid days off are for permanent employees only and casuals are generally not entitled to paid days off unless specified otherwise.
Notice of termination and redundancy pay
When an employee’s employment ends, the National Employment Standards outline minimum entitlements regarding notice periods and payments in lieu of notice. These apply to all permanent employees covered by the national workplace relations system, including those not covered by an award or agreement.
The NES also specifies redundancy pay entitlements, which can be up to 16 weeks of pay, depending on the employee's length of continuous service. Redundancy pay does not apply if the employer is a small business (fewer than 15 employees) or another exemption applies.
Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement
Under the NES, employers must provide the Fair Work Information Statement to all new employees. In addition, casual employees must be given the Casual Employment Information Statement.
You can view the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement here.
Employee Choice Pathway
Under the NES, casual employees who accept an offer of casual employment have no firm commitment to ongoing work. However, from 26 August 2024, the Employee Choice Pathway replaced the previous Casual Conversion process, allowing eligible casual employees to request conversion to full-time or part-time permanent employment.
From 26 August 2025, this pathway applies to all employers, including small businesses. Employers must respond in writing within 21 days of receiving a conversion request and may only refuse the request on reasonable business grounds.
Superannuation contributions
From 1 January 2024, the NES included a right to superannuation contributions. This means that most employees covered by the NES—including eligible casuals based on age and earnings—can take court action under the Fair Work Act to recover unpaid or underpaid superannuation.
Although superannuation contributions were not traditionally included as a standard NES entitlement like leave or hours, this reform formalises superannuation enforcement as a protected workplace right under the NES.
Need help navigating the NES?
Whether it's understanding leave entitlements, managing public holiday pay, or staying compliant with award conditions, there's a lot to keep track of.
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