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Fair Work compliant employment contracts — prepared for your business, not downloaded

An individually prepared employment contract with your entity details, the correct Modern Award classification, current verified pay rates and your state's requirements. No blanks. Delivered as an editable Word file in 48 hours.

✓ Fair Work Act 2009 & NES aligned ✓ Award rates verified before delivery ✓ Zurich PI insured ✓ Sorted or You Don't Pay
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Why the contract is the document that decides disputes

Most employment problems — underpayment claims, unfair dismissal, arguments over hours or duties — come down to one question: what was actually agreed, and can you prove it? A verbal arrangement or a half-filled template answers neither. The Fair Work Act doesn't force you to put most contracts in writing, but everything it does enforce — the National Employment Standards, Modern Award minimums, record-keeping — assumes you can show what the deal was.

The stakes have gone up. Since 1 January 2025, intentional underpayment of wages is a criminal offence, and the Fair Work Ombudsman issued over a thousand compliance notices to ordinary small employers last year — most triggered by a current or former staff member's complaint, not an audit. A contract that quotes the wrong award, an outdated rate, or the wrong employment type isn't a technicality; it's the paper trail of a breach.

The expensive version of this page: when something goes wrong, employment lawyers typically charge $5,000–$15,000 to untangle it after the fact. A properly prepared contract is $450 — or $325 as part of the full pack — done before the crisis.

What a compliant employment contract must get right

A contract can never provide less than the National Employment Standards or the applicable Modern Award — any clause that tries is simply unenforceable, and the shortfall becomes an underpayment. Within that floor, a well-drafted small-business contract nails down:

Alongside the contract itself, new hires must be given the Fair Work Information Statement (and casuals the Casual Employment Information Statement) — both are included in the onboarding kit that ships free with the Full Pack.

Where free templates and AI drafts quietly fail

Generic templates and chatbot-generated contracts look convincing — that's the problem. The failures are invisible until someone challenges them:

Wrong or missing Award

Most free templates never mention a Modern Award at all, so the minimum-rate floor for the role is undefined — and undefined always resolves against the employer.

Stale pay rates

Award rates change every 1 July. A template drafted around last year's rates is an underpayment on autopilot from its first pay run.

Imported foreign law

AI drafts routinely include US-style "at-will employment" and termination clauses that don't exist in Australian law — worse than useless in a dispute.

All-in rates done badly

"This rate covers all entitlements" without specifying which entitlements is a classic trigger for penalty-rate and overtime back-pay claims.

In a Fair Work audit or unfair dismissal hearing, "I downloaded it" is not a defence. Every Sorted Docs contract is prepared individually and checked against current Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides before delivery — and it's backed by Professional Indemnity Insurance underwritten by Zurich, which no template or chatbot can offer.

Tailored to your industry, award and state

The detail that matters is industry-specific. A hospitality contract has to handle penalty rates, split shifts and junior rates. A trades contract deals with site allowances, travel and tool provisions, and interacts with your state's WHS regime. A clinic contract needs to reflect professional registration requirements and the employee-versus-contractor line that allied health keeps tripping over. We prepare contracts across trades & construction, hospitality, allied health, childcare & education, retail & beauty, and transport & logistics — and if you're not sure which Award covers a role, we identify it as part of the process.

One contract, or the whole foundation? The contract is Document 1 of 6. Most businesses pair it with the Employee Handbook and WHS Policy so the clauses that reference your policies actually have policies behind them.

Single contract $450 · or all 6 documents for $1,950

Individually prepared, delivered in 48 hours as editable Word files. Unlimited revisions. Sorted or you don't pay.

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Employment contract questions, answered

The Fair Work Act doesn't require a written contract for most employees — but in practice a clear written contract is essential. Without one, there's no reliable record of what was agreed on pay, hours, duties or notice, and that gap works against the employer in any dispute, underpayment claim or unfair dismissal case. Whatever is (or isn't) written down, employees are always entitled to at least the minimums in the National Employment Standards and any applicable Modern Award.
Yes — significantly. The employment type determines which entitlements apply: permanent staff accrue paid leave, while casuals receive a casual loading instead and have specific rights around converting to permanent employment. Using a full-time template for a casual hire (or vice versa) is one of the most common ways small businesses end up with underpayment or misclassification exposure. Every Sorted Docs contract is prepared for the actual employment type and Award classification of the role.
Only with great care. A clause saying a flat rate "covers all award entitlements" without specifying which entitlements are absorbed — penalty rates, overtime, allowances — is a well-known source of underpayment claims, and the rate must always leave the employee at least as well off as the Award for the hours actually worked. If you want to pay above-award rates or annualised arrangements, the contract needs to say precisely how, which is exactly the kind of detail we build in.
No — it's one of the most common situations we fix. Existing employees can be moved onto proper written contracts; the key is that the new contract can't cut back entitlements they already have, and it should accurately reflect their current role, employment type and Award classification. Getting long-serving staff documented properly before a dispute arises is far cheaper than reconstructing the arrangement afterwards.
No. Each contract is individually prepared from your intake form: your legal entity and ABN, the correct Modern Award and classification for the role, current pay rates verified against Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides, your state's requirements, and the actual duties, hours and reporting lines of the position. You receive an editable Word file with no blanks, backed by our "Sorted or You Don't Pay" guarantee and Professional Indemnity Insurance underwritten by Zurich.

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