You have found the right person, but they can only work three days a week. The offer is made, and now you are staring at an employment contract template that was clearly built for a full-time role. A permanent part-time contract looks similar at first glance, but the differences are what cause the trouble: the hours, the pay, the leave, and how any of it can change.
The document you are drafting does two jobs. It sets out the commercial terms of the engagement: status, hours, pay, and entitlements. And it operates inside a legal framework it cannot override. The National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) apply to every national system employee, and any applicable modern award or enterprise agreement sets minimums you must meet or exceed. A clause that promises less than the framework is unenforceable, no matter what the employee signed.
The clauses every permanent part-time contract needs
These are the provisions that do the real work. Order them the way they appear in the document, because each one builds on the last.
The agreed pattern of hours
This is the defining clause of a part-time contract. Part-time employees work less than 38 hours per week, with hours that are usually regular each week, as the Fair Work Ombudsman explains. The clause should name the weekly hours and the specific days and times, for example "Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 9.30am to 2.30pm".
- The award rule: Many modern awards require the agreed pattern of hours for part-time employees to be confirmed in writing, and set out how changes to the pattern are made, usually by mutual agreement recorded in writing. Check the current version of your award before finalising the clause.
- The trap: A clause that says "20 hours per week as rostered" hands the argument to whoever is disputing it. If there is no agreed pattern, it is much harder to work out whether additional hours attract overtime or penalty rates, and how leave should accrue.
- The legal floor: Under s 62 of the Act, an employer must not request or require a part-time employee to work more than their ordinary hours in a week (up to the 38 hour full-time ceiling) unless the additional hours are reasonable, and the employee can refuse hours that are unreasonable.
Employment status and classification
The contract should state plainly that the role is permanent part-time, not casual and not full-time. The distinction matters because the entitlements differ. Part-time employees receive the same minimum entitlements as full-time employees on a pro-rata basis, including paid annual leave and paid sick and carer's leave. Casuals receive a loading instead, and no paid leave, because there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work.
- Misclassification risk: Calling a regular part-time worker a casual, or vice versa, can produce underpayment claims and back-pay exposure.
- Casual conversion: Under the Act, eligible casual employees can request conversion to permanent employment after meeting service and regularity criteria, so a role that starts casual can become permanent part-time later. Build the contract so it can accommodate that move.
- Classification level: If the role is award-covered, the contract should name the classification level, because the minimum pay rate attaches to it.
Pay, penalties and overtime
Set out the hourly rate or pro-rated salary, and confirm it meets or exceeds the minimum in the applicable award or enterprise agreement for the classification. If the role is award-covered, also deal with penalty rates, allowances, and what happens when the employee works beyond the agreed pattern.
- The overtime trigger: Many awards have specific rules for when additional hours worked by a part-time employee attract overtime or penalty rates, often once the hours exceed the agreed pattern or a weekly threshold. A flat rate that silently covers all hours can undercut the award.
- Record-keeping: The Fair Work framework requires accurate records of hours, pay and leave, and compliant payslips. If a dispute about hours ever reaches a tribunal, the records you kept are the evidence you have.
Leave and other entitlements
The clause should confirm that leave accrues on a pro-rata basis according to ordinary hours. The entitlements underneath are set by the National Employment Standards: four weeks of paid annual leave per year of service (five for eligible shiftworkers) under s 87 of the Act, and 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave per year under s 96.
- Not pro-rated: Paid family and domestic violence leave of 10 days per year applies in full to part-time employees, as the Fair Work Ombudsman notes.
- Long service leave: This is set by state and territory legislation, so the contract should not try to reinvent it. State the position and refer to the applicable law.
- Public holidays: State how public holidays are treated, including where the employee's rostered day falls on a holiday.
Superannuation
Confirm that the employer will pay the Superannuation Guarantee on the employee's ordinary time earnings. The Superannuation Guarantee rate is 12% from 1 July 2025, and from 1 July 2026 the Payday Super reforms require super to be paid each payday rather than quarterly. Set out the fund options the employee can choose from. This is general information only and not tax advice, so point the employee at their accountant for questions about their own position.
Flexible work and changing the arrangement
The National Employment Standards give eligible employees a right to request flexible working arrangements, including changes to hours, patterns of work, or location. Under s 65 of the Act, the request must relate to a listed circumstance:
- Who can ask: An employee who is pregnant, who is a parent or has care responsibility for a child of school age or younger, who is a carer, who has a disability, who is 55 or over, or who is experiencing family and domestic violence (or caring for a family or household member who is).
Under s 65A of the Act, an employer must respond in writing within 21 days, and may refuse the request only after genuine discussion, on reasonable business grounds, with the reasons set out in the response.
The contract should explain how an employee makes such a request, and it should set out how the agreed pattern of hours can be varied. For award-covered employees, follow the award's rules, which in many cases require mutual agreement recorded in writing before a change takes effect. A short variation letter or email confirming the new days, times and start date is usually enough.
Probation, notice and termination
If you use a probation period, set its length and what happens during it. For termination, the clause should state the notice requirements, which must be at least the National Employment Standards minimums in s 117 of the Act. Those minimums scale with the employee's length of service, and payment in lieu of notice is available. If the role is award-covered, include any award-specific termination provisions. Redundancy pay under s 119 of the Act also applies to eligible part-time employees, scaled by service.
- The trap: A termination clause that promises less notice than the NES, or that tries to remove redundancy pay, is unenforceable to that extent.
- Fair process: General protections under the Act protect employees from adverse action when they exercise workplace rights, and anti-discrimination laws protect against dismissal on protected grounds. The clause should not promise anything inconsistent with those protections.
Policies, confidentiality and intellectual property
Reference your workplace policies (conduct, bullying and harassment, work health and safety, privacy, social media, grievances) and make clear whether they form part of the contract. WHS duties under state and territory legislation apply regardless of hours, so part-time staff need the same access to safety information and equipment as everyone else. Include confidentiality obligations, and deal with ownership of intellectual property created in the course of employment. Finally, include a compliance clause confirming the contract operates subject to the NES and any applicable award or enterprise agreement, and an entire agreement clause requiring changes to be recorded in writing and agreed by both parties. Give every new employee the Fair Work Information Statement, as required by s 125 of the Act.
Optional clauses worth considering
These clauses are situational. Include them when the trigger applies, not by default.
- Restraint of trade: Worth including for part-time staff with client relationships or confidential know-how, but it must be tailored to protect a legitimate business interest and no wider. An overbroad restraint is unenforceable.
- Fixed-term engagement: If the role is genuinely time-limited, for example covering a project or a season, a fixed-term permanent part-time contract can work. The risk is that a fixed term attached to an ongoing role can be challenged as really being ongoing employment, so make sure the end date or event is genuine and not a label.
- Individual flexibility arrangement: For award-covered employees, an IFA lets you and the employee agree a different arrangement on a term, for example banking hours, while keeping the NES and award safety net intact. It must be genuinely agreed and recorded in writing.
- Cashing out annual leave: Only include this if the award or enterprise agreement allows it, and never where it would leave the employee with less than four weeks of accrued leave.
- Electronic signatures: Contracts and variations can usually be signed electronically, so include a clause confirming that, and store signed copies securely so you can produce them if asked.
When to get a lawyer: how Artificer Legal reviews a part-time contract
A template gets you most of the way, but the clauses that cause disputes are the ones that need checking against your specific award and your specific workplace. When we review a permanent part-time contract, we start by confirming which award, if any, covers the role and the correct classification level. We then benchmark the pay, penalties and overtime triggers against the current award, and check the pattern of hours clause against the award's part-time provisions, because that clause drives everything downstream. We look at the variation and termination mechanics to make sure they comply with the NES and award, and we assess casual conversion exposure where employees have moved between categories. Finally, we check that the contract and your policies tell the same story, because inconsistent documents are where underpayment and unfair dismissal claims start.
The clauses we push back on are the vague hours clause, the below-award flat rate, the unilateral variation clause, and the overbroad restraint. If any of those are in the draft, it is worth a conversation before the employee signs.
The agreed pattern of hours
If a part-time arrangement ends in a dispute, the first question a tribunal asks is usually "what was the agreed pattern of hours?" Everything else flows from that answer: what was owed in ordinary pay, when overtime or penalties kicked in, how much leave accrued, whether a roster change was a variation that needed agreement, and whether a dismissal was fair. The contract that records the pattern precisely, and that requires any change to be agreed in writing, is the contract that answers the question before it is asked. Draft that clause carefully and the rest of the document has a foundation; draft it vaguely and no other clause will save you.
In short: confirm the pattern of hours in writing, name the classification and pay rate, state how leave and super work, follow the award's rules for variations, and keep the notice and termination terms at or above the National Employment Standards. Meet those obligations, review the contract against the current award each year, and keep records of hours and changes as you go.