Job Ads in the Sector

What if every job ad across the outdoor industry (or even just on this site) was required to display the following information:

• Name of employer 

  • And whether they are an Australian business or not

  • (ideally including an ABN for Australian businesses)

• Type of employment

  • Full time

  • Part time

  • Permanent

  • Fixed term Contract

  • Casual 

  • Contractor (generally this shouldn’t be the case)

• What minimum pay and conditions apply to the role

  • Expressed as either an annual salary (for permanent staff), or a minimum/base rate of pay per hour (for casuals) (see below for more on this)

  • Which Award?

  • Which EBA?

  • Award Free?

  • N.B. The role might pay ABOVE this, but the legally required minimum should be stated in the offer. E.g. “Remuneration is prescribed by the blah blah blah Award, but pay may be above this base rate.” OR “this role is award free and the minimum wage will apply”

I think that would weed out a lot of problems that employees face.

Casual employees and the ‘Day Rate’ of Pay

As far as I am aware there is no such thing as a day rate in employment legislation, it always comes back to an hourly rate.#

For many years, jobs in the outdoors "hid" hourly pay rates in "day rates". It took a long time to educate the community that employees needed to be paid by the hour, not by the nebulous idea of a "day" (which ranged from 8 hours to 24 hours!).

Many employers do advertise a day rate in job ads. And it is in fact legal to advertise and pay a day rate (if the "day rate" is above the Award rate that would be paid for the "day" - whatever a day is...). But I am worried that if (for casual employment) job ads express their indicative pay in ‘day rate’ terms, that we will end up with the fundamental unit of pay (hours) being obscured. (And this is particularly problematic when that ‘day rate’ obscures weekend/holiday penalty rates that should be paid too!)

I think job ads should avoid discussing ‘day rates’ and stick with a ‘base hourly rate’ as the foundational unit of pay when advertising jobs for casual positions. (N.B. For permanent staff, an annual salary is a much more meaningful and appropriate baseline/yardstick)

#(There are some niche awards that have some odd clauses that roughly translate to day rates, but that this idea is not reflected in the legislation).

*(As far as I am aware, there are no Awards where a flat hourly rate applies when an employee works different hours across a 24 hour period – there are overtime and other penalty rates that kick in – and so a simple "base rate x 24 = day rate" calculation is highly problematic.)

From 2023

It's now against the law to post a job ad with pay rates less than the Award.

Prohibited job ads

Job ads can't include pay rates that are less than employees’ minimum entitlements.

This means that job ads can’t include pay rates that breach:

• the Fair Work Act, or

• a fair work instrument (such as an award or enterprise agreement).

Here's the information for job ads that Fair Work recommends:

• <Add business name>

• <Add job title>

• <List the pay, the type of employment, expected hours and the main benefits of the job>

Eg:

• Outdoor Business Co. Pty Ltd. Inc.

• Permanent full-time position

• 38 hours per week

• City location, close to public transport

• $40 per hour + relevant award entitlements including penalty rates, overtime and allowances + superannuation

Find out more here:

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/starting-employment/job-ads