Questions & Answers - Employment rights and obligations

Question:

We are a small company mainly involved in industrial maintenance and domestic installations/repairs. The hours an employee is required on site varies from day to day. We currently have an indentured apprentice and are wondering what the obligations of: 1) us, the employer, and 2) the apprentice in regards to communicating the hours of work. For example, if on occasion no communication has been made by the company the day before, is it required for the employee to attempt to contact us regarding the time and place for work the following day?

Answer:

The employee needs to be ready and willing to serve you under the employment contract. This means they need to get in touch with your organisation's depot or home base to ascertain work commitments. There may also be award obligations on you as an employer to let the employee know of work roster. The situation is different if the employee is a casual but an apprentice is not usually casual.