Under the Fair Work Act 2009, national system employers must keep employee records (basic details) for at least 7 years. Clock starts: not stated in the Act.
Each employee's basic details: employer and employee names, commencement date, and whether the employee is full-time or part-time, permanent or casual.
3 provisions in 2 laws apply to these records. Each one is set out below with its own period and start date.
The terms
Conditions and exceptions Caution
Neither the Fair Work Act nor the Regulations say when the 7 years starts.
When a business is transferred, the new employer takes over the old employer's records as if it had made them itself (r 3.41).
Related obligation: the Regulations prohibit altering employee records except to correct an error (r 3.44). This is an integrity rule, not a retention period.
From the provisions:
- The record must be of a kind prescribed by the regulations
- A transfer of business has occurred as described in section 311 of the Fair Work Act
The law
Other terms that apply to these records
This page covers employee records (basic details) on their own. The same file is often caught by other laws as well, with different periods and start dates. See why a legal term is not a schedule.
4 records. 4 sets of rules. They don't agree.
One business file can hold all of these at once.
Now do that for every record your organisation holds, and redo it when the law changes. ScheduleOne has done that work, and keeps it current.
See ScheduleOne →