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Autumn 2006

Making changes to your employment contract

The HACSU Helpline has received a number or enquiries from members who have made temporary changes to their employment conditions and who have encountered problems when wishing to return to their original conditions.

For example, it is quite common for workers returning from Paternity or Maternity Leave to seek temporarily reduced hours with the intention of returning to their pre-leave hours as their child grows older. Many industrial awards and agreements allow for parents working reduced hours after taking parental leave to return to their original hours up until their child's second birthday.

If you wish to make changes to the way you work and you wish these changes to be temporary - be it varying your hours, the days that you work or your start and finish times - it is very important that you get your agreement with your employer in writing.

Make sure it is clear what the changes to your employment conditions are and under what circumstances you can revert to your previous conditions - will you go back to your old conditions after a set amount of time, by mutual agreement with your employer, or simply once the need for the change has passed.

With an agreement in writing you can be sure that you and your employer clearly understand the arrangement and you are in a much better position to enforce the agreement if you run into problems.

It might also be a good idea to bring any written agreement into your local HACSU office to have it checked out before signing it.