Employment packages, agreements and contracts

The employer and the prospective employee must then meet to discuss remuneration and the
terms and conditions of employment. An award or an enterprise agreement may already have
set the actual remuneration levels and the terms and conditions of employment. The 'safety
net' of employment terms and conditions would have already been prescribed by legislation,
either State, Commonwealth, or Country legislation. However, there may also be an
individual contract that may be drawn up between the employee and the employer.

The actual terms and conditions of employment may vary greatly between employees. The
actual level of remuneration included in the individual's employment package may be a
combination of material and non-material types. The individual employee and the employer
will need to consider all relevant legislation, when negotiating the employment package.
There are many different types of benefits that may be included in an employment package
for employees. They include motor vehicles, education expenses, share issues, profit sharing
arrangements, vacations, provision of technological equipment, e.g. mobile computers and
mobile phones, office location, and other benefits such as medical expenses, retirement funds,
and superannuation contributions. The majority of employees will, however, simply be
offered a flat wage and 'safety net' terms and conditions of employment.

There are a number of workplace agreements that a prospective employee may be asked to
agree to and sign before accepting employment. These agreements may be in the form of a
Workplace Agreement, a Certified Agreement,an Enterprise Flexibility Agreement, or a
similar Agreement by another name, depending in which part of the world you reside or are
working in. These agreements will set out rates of pay, conditions of work including hours of
work, leave provisions, employee relations and dispute resolution procedures, termination or
severance processes and career and promotion paths. Management will have decided which of
these agreements will be used within the organisation.

On the other hand, an individual employee contract may be used to set out all of the above
conditions. This contract will be between the individual employee and the employer and be
for a stated period of time and negotiated directly between the individual employee and the
employer.