First published on Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Last updated on Wednesday, June 11, 2025
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Among the Fair Work Act’s purposes, is a provision of 10 legislated National Employment Standards (NES). These minimum standards are mandatory for employees covered by the national workplace relations system, regardless of industry, business size or unique circumstance.
The purpose of these standards is to protect minimum entitlements of employees working in Australia under the national system regardless of their award, registered agreement or employment contract.
In this article, we’ll break down each of the National Employment Standards (NES) to help you better understand how this piece of 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).
Maximum weekly hours of work
Right to request flexible working arrangements
Parental leave and related entitlements
Personal/carers and compassionate leave and family and domestic violence leave
Community service leave
Long service leave
Notice of termination and redundancy pay
Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement
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 deal with:
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
super obligations
situations in which redundancy entitlements do not apply.
They may also supplement the NES by providing entitlements that are more favourable for 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 hour 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 could 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 the responsibility to care for a child who is of school age or younger
Carers
People with a disability
People who are aged 55 or older
Those who are experiencing violence from a family member
Those providing care or support to an immediate family/household member experiencing violence
The above is not to be confused with an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA). An IFA is a written agreement used by an employer and employee to change the effect of certain clauses in their award or registered agreement (like an enterprise agreement). In contrary to a request for flexible working arrangements, it is available to anyone and has no set limit.
Parental leave and related entitlements
Under the NES, parental leave applies to those who have, or will have, responsibility for the care of a child. Employees must have completed 12 months of continuous service at their employer to be eligible for parental leave.
Those eligible can access a range of parental leave entitlements, including:
Birth-related leave and adoption-related leave (including in relation to premature birth, stillbirth or infant death)
Unpaid special maternity leave
A right to transfer to a safe job
Consultation requirements
A return-to-work guarantee
Unpaid pre-adoption leave
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 unpaid family and domestic violence leave (in a 12-month period)
Community service leave
The NES entitles employees to take unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service.
Those undertaking voluntary emergency activities have no set limit on the amount of leave an employee is entitled to, however it is limited to the time that they are engaged in the activity, plus any travel time.
Those participating in jury service are entitled to up to 10 days of paid leave.
It’s also important to be aware of fair-trading laws, which can impact the administration of community service leave and other entitlements.
Long service leave
Employees (including casual employees) who have been with the same employer for a long period of time will 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 seven to fifteen years with the same or a related employer.
Public holidays
Under the NES, permanent employees 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.
Casual employees are not entitled to paid days off for public holidays.
Notice of termination and redundancy pay
When it comes to ending employment, the NES outlines the minimum entitlements relating to notice periods and payments in lieu of notice. This applies to all permanent employees, including those not employed under the workplace relations system.
It also states the redundancy pay an employee will receive upon termination. This is up to 16 weeks of redundancy pay, based on length of service.
Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement
Under the NES, the Fair Work Information Statement must be provided by employers to all new employees. Casual employees must also be given the Casual Employment Information Statement.
Take a look at the Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement here.
Employee Choice Pathway
Under the NES, casual employees who accept an offer of employment for a casual position have no commitment to ongoing work.
However, casual employees have the opportunity to change to full-time or part-time employment if there is a mutual agreement between both the employee and employer. This is via the ‘Employee Choice’ pathway which replaced ‘Casual Conversion’ on August 26th, 2024.
There is currently a transitional period in place as small employers transition to ‘Employee Choice’ on August 26th, 2025. This transition period ended on February 26th, 2025, for all non-small businesses.
Ensure your business complies with the National Employment Standards
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