A contract, a term or the performance of a contract or term may be illegal on one of three broad grounds. First, it may be contrary to public policy. Second, it may be expressly or impliedly prohibited...
One of the requirements for the creation of a valid contract of employment is that “valuable consideration” moves between the parties, and that the terms of the purported contract are sufficiently...
For a contract of employment to come into existence, it is essential that the potential employer makes what the common law recognises as an “offer” to enter into legal relations, and that that...
Parties wishing to enter into a contract of employment must have the legal capacity to do so. There is a common law presumption that a person has the capacity to enter into a contract. Issues concerning...
The employment contract may be varied at any time by mutual agreement between the parties. Generally speaking, parties cannot unilaterally vary the employment contract unless the original contract of employment...
Contracts of employment contain both express and implied terms. Express terms are those that are explicitly agreed between the parties, whether in writing, orally or a combination of the two. See Guidance...
The existence of a mutual intention to create legal relations is an essential precondition of the existence of a contract of employment (or any other kind of contract, including a principal/contractor relationship).
Authored by Nicholas Ellery, Partner and Alannah Hogan, Lawyer, Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Updated by the LexisNexis Legal Writer team.
An offer can be made orally, in writing or by conduct. In the event of any dispute, courts and tribunals will examine the conduct of the parties to ascertain firstly whether there was a mutual intent to contract, and if so, the operative terms. As in any contractual relationship, whether the statements or conduct of an employer amount to an offer is ascertained using the ordinary objective approach in contract. The issue is whether a reasonable person in the position of the employee would conclude that the statements and conduct of the employer were intended to convey an offer which would, on acceptance, alter the employee’s legal rights. See Yousif v Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Saad v TWT Ltd and Nikolich v Goldman Sachs JB Were Services Pty Ltd.
When a contract is formed, a key distinction is drawn between stipulations that are intended to give rise to enforceable rights (promissory terms) and those that are said to be mere representations and non-enforceable.
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