Casual Employment Contract

1. What this contract is, and when it applies

This is the Casual Employment Contract (this “Contract”). It is a standard-form agreement between a Clinic and a Professional. As a condition of using the Platform, every Clinic and every Professional agrees that any employment between them arranged through the Platform is on the terms of this Contract. Cover Dental publishes and maintains it, but it is not part of the Cover Dental Terms of Service (the “Terms”), and Cover Dental is not a party to it. Words that begin with a capital letter and are not defined here have the meaning given to them in Section 2 of the Terms. Using those words does not make any part of the Terms, or any rule of the Platform, a term of the employment.

The Clinic employs the Professional as a casual employee. The employment starts when the Professional accepts a Shift from the Clinic at a time when the Clinic does not employ them. Each Shift is offered and accepted separately, and either party may decline any Shift. The Clinic makes no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern of work. Each Shift accepted is a separate Engagement within the same employment. Accepting a Booking forms an Engagement for each day in it. Neither party signs anything further. Accepting a Shift in the Platform is an electronic signature for the purposes of Section 27 of the Terms.

The parties are the Clinic that posted the Shift, as employer, and the Professional who accepted it, as casual employee. A Professional who works for several Clinics has a separate Employment with each.

The Employment ends as Section 11 describes: on notice by either party through the Platform, when either account closes or the Clinic leaves the Platform, or automatically once 12 weeks have passed in which the Professional has worked no Shift for the Clinic, has no accepted Shift scheduled with the Clinic and has no hours awaiting approval or inclusion in a Pay Run.

2. The Shift Schedule

This Contract is the same for every Employment and every Engagement. What differs from one Engagement to the next is set out in its Shift Schedule. The Platform shows both parties the Shift Schedule before the Professional accepts the Shift, fixes it when the Shift is accepted, and keeps it, unchanged, where both parties can see it at any time. Each Shift Schedule forms part of this Contract for its Engagement.

The details in a Shift Schedule can only change as Section 7 of this Contract allows.

3. Casual employment

The Professional is employed as a casual employee. There is no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work, and the employment is casual within the meaning of section 15A of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

This means that, beyond each Engagement accepted:

• the Clinic is under no obligation to offer the Professional any further work, and the Professional is under no obligation to accept any that is offered;
• there is no guarantee of ongoing, regular or minimum hours; and
• the Professional is free to work for anyone else, including other clinics, at any time. There is no exclusivity, no restraint after an Engagement or the Employment ends, and no requirement to be available.

As a casual employee, the Professional is paid a casual loading in place of paid leave entitlements, in the way the applicable award or enterprise agreement requires. Casual employees remain entitled to the National Employment Standards entitlements that apply to them, including unpaid carer's leave, unpaid compassionate leave, paid family and domestic violence leave and the right to be absent on a public holiday.

Whether the Professional is a casual employee depends on how the Employment works in practice, not only on this Contract. If the Professional's work for the Clinic settles into a regular pattern, Section 12 applies.

4. This Contract never reduces a minimum

The National Employment Standards, any modern award or enterprise agreement that applies to the Professional's employment, and any other applicable law prevail over this Contract to the extent of any inconsistency. Nothing in this Contract reduces, displaces or contracts out of an entitlement that either party has under them.

This Contract deliberately does not state rates, loadings, penalty rates, overtime thresholds, break lengths, minimum engagement periods or superannuation percentages as fixed terms. Those come from the industrial instrument and the legislation that apply, which change from time to time, and they apply whether or not they are repeated here. The Shift Schedule records how they applied to each Engagement when it was accepted. Where this Contract is silent, the applicable instrument and the law fill the gap.

The Platform sets a minimum ordinary hourly rate for each role at no less than the award minimum for the highest classification ordinarily applicable to that role. Penalty and overtime rates are calculated by applying the award's penalty and overtime percentages to the agreed ordinary rate. The Clinic, as employer, remains responsible for paying no less than the award minimum for the Professional's correct classification, including where the work performed requires a higher classification. Section 15.2 of the Terms explains the Platform's role in calculating pay and the Clinic's responsibility for checking it.

5. What the Professional agrees to

For each Engagement, the Professional must:

• attend at the site, on the date and at the times shown in the Shift Schedule, on time and in a fit state to work, with any equipment, uniform and personal protective equipment the Shift Schedule requires;
• hold, and keep holding for the duration of the Engagement, every registration, qualification, insurance and other credential the role requires, and comply with any conditions or undertakings on their registration;
• work only within their scope of practice, and under any supervision the law or their registration requires;
• perform the duties of the role, and any other duties ordinarily performed by a person in that role that are consistent with their qualifications, training and experience, to a professional standard;
• follow the Clinic's reasonable and lawful directions and its workplace policies and procedures, including its infection-control, work health and safety, and patient-privacy requirements, as made known to them;
• record their hours honestly, and submit or review the timesheet for the Shift;
• tell the Clinic as soon as possible if they cannot attend or must leave early, and not solicit the Clinic's patients; and
• tell the Clinic and Cover Dental promptly if a registration is suspended or cancelled, if conditions are placed on it, or if any other credential stops being valid.

6. What the Clinic agrees to, as employer

For the Employment and each Engagement, the Clinic must:

• comply with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), the National Employment Standards and any applicable modern award or enterprise agreement;
• pay the Professional correctly and on time for all hours worked, including any loading, penalty rate, overtime or minimum engagement entitlement that applies;
• withhold and remit PAYG, make superannuation guarantee contributions to the fund the Professional nominated through the Platform (or the Clinic's default fund, if the Professional has not nominated one) within the time the law requires, and issue pay slips within the time the law requires;
• provide a safe workplace, including induction, infection control, and emergency and incident procedures, and meet its work health and safety obligations;
• meet any supervision and scope-of-practice requirements that apply to the work;
• maintain workers' compensation insurance covering the Professional as its casual employee, tell its insurer about any workplace injury promptly, and take no adverse action against a Professional for making a claim;
• comply with anti-discrimination law; and
• keep the employee records the law requires, for as long as it requires.

6.1 Information statements

The Clinic must give the Professional the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement at the start of every Employment, including a new Employment after an earlier one with the Clinic has ended. The Clinic authorises Cover Dental to give both on its behalf. When an Employment starts, the Professional completes onboarding for the Clinic in the app: they sign a tax file number declaration for the Clinic if they have not already made one, and they acknowledge receiving both statements, which the app shows them. Once both steps are done, Cover Dental emails the Professional, on the Clinic's behalf, an onboarding pack with both statements and a link to the signed tax file number declaration. Cover Dental keeps each version of the statements it gives, and records which version the Professional received and acknowledged. The current statements are also available at any time in the app.

Both are published free by the Fair Work Ombudsman at fairwork.gov.au. The Casual Employment Information Statement must then be given again at the intervals the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) requires, which differ depending on whether the Clinic is a small business employer. Cover Dental emails it to the Professional, on the Clinic's behalf, 6 months and 12 months after the Employment started, and every 12 months after that while the Employment continues.

7. Hours, breaks and timesheets

The Professional is engaged for the hours shown in each Shift Schedule. Any break, and any minimum engagement period, is as the applicable award or enterprise agreement provides.

The Professional starts the Shift in the Platform, as Section 5.4 of the Terms describes. At the end of the Shift a timesheet recording the actual start, finish and break times is submitted and then approved, as Section 7 of the Terms describes. The approved timesheet is the record of the hours worked, and the Clinic pays on it.

The Professional is entitled to be paid for every hour actually worked, whether or not it matches the hours in the Shift Schedule, whether or not it was recorded accurately in the Platform, and whether or not the timesheet has been approved. A Clinic must not approve a timesheet it knows to be wrong, and must not delay approving one to delay pay.

If the Clinic and the Professional agree to change the hours of an accepted Shift, they should record the change in the timesheet so that the pay follows the work. The Shift Schedule continues to show what was agreed at acceptance.

7.1 Clock-in location record (workplace surveillance notice)

This section is the Clinic's notice to the Professional of tracking surveillance, for the purposes of any workplace surveillance law that applies, including the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW) and the Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT).

• What is recorded: the location of the Professional's mobile device, and its distance from the Clinic's site, at the moment the Professional clocks in to a Shift through the Platform. Location is not recorded at any other time.
• How: through the Cover Dental app, using the device's location service, with the Professional's permission.
• When it starts: at the Professional's first Engagement in each Employment with the Clinic, and it applies to every later Engagement in that Employment.
• Continuous or intermittent: intermittent, once per Shift, at clock-in.
• How long: for as long as the Employment continues.

The Professional agrees that this notice is given when they accept the Shift that starts each Employment with the Clinic, and that a notice period shorter than 14 days applies.

8. Pay

The Professional is paid the agreed hourly rate shown in the Shift Schedule for each ordinary hour worked. That rate is inclusive of the casual loading, and must be at or above both the Platform's Minimum Rate for the role and the minimum the applicable award or enterprise agreement requires for the Professional's correct classification. Penalty, overtime and public holiday rates are calculated by applying the award's percentages to the agreed hourly rate. Setting the rate, and making sure it is lawful, is the Clinic's responsibility.

The Clinic pays the Professional's wages weekly, through its Pay Runs, from its own bank account. Cover Dental never holds, receives, controls or pays wages, PAYG withholding or superannuation. Section 3.2 of the Terms explains this in full.

The Clinic remains liable for any underpayment, including any shortfall arising from a pay calculation shown in the Platform. Questions about pay go first to the Clinic, as the employer.

9. Cancellation, finishing early and minimum engagement

These are the employment terms that apply when a Shift does not run as scheduled. The Platform's own rules about cancelling, no-shows and recording who ended a Shift are in the Terms and are not part of this Contract.

• Before the Shift starts. If an accepted Shift is cancelled before it starts, any payment the applicable award or the law requires for a cancelled engagement still applies, and the Clinic remains responsible for it.
• Ended early by the Clinic. Once the Clinic has directed or allowed the Professional to start work, the Professional is paid for at least the minimum engagement the applicable award provides for a casual employee, even if the Clinic ends the Shift early for any reason on its side.
• Ended early by the Professional. If the Professional ends the Shift early for a reason not attributable to the Clinic, the Professional is paid for the hours actually worked and any further amount the applicable award requires.
• Not ready to work. If, at or before the start of a Shift, a Professional is not ready, willing and able to perform the work, the Clinic may decline to start the Shift or allow part of it to be worked. Any decision must be lawful and reasonable, must comply with employment and anti-discrimination law, and does not remove any minimum engagement entitlement the award gives.

10. Confidentiality, patient information and property

The Professional will encounter confidential information during the Employment, including patient health information, clinical records and the Clinic's business information. The Professional must:

• keep it confidential, and use it only for the purpose of performing the work;
• handle patient information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles, any applicable State or Territory health records legislation, and the Clinic's own privacy and records policies; and
• return or securely dispose of any Clinic property, records or materials at the end of each Engagement, and not retain copies.

These obligations continue after each Engagement and after the Employment ends. They do not prevent a disclosure the law requires, or a disclosure to a regulator, the Fair Work Ombudsman, AHPRA or a legal adviser.

The Clinic remains the entity responsible for the patient information held at its site.

11. When the Employment ends

Each Engagement ends when its Shift is completed, or earlier under Section 9. The Employment continues between Engagements.

The employment ends on notice by either party through the Platform, when either account closes or the Clinic leaves the Platform, or automatically once 12 weeks have passed in which the Professional has worked no Shift for the Clinic, has no accepted Shift scheduled with the Clinic, and has no hours awaiting approval or inclusion in a Pay Run. If the employment has ended, accepting a new Shift from the Clinic starts a new employment on these terms.

No notice is required beyond anything the applicable award, enterprise agreement or the National Employment Standards require for a casual employee. Ending the Employment cancels any Shift the Professional has accepted from the Clinic but not yet started, and Section 9 applies to it.

All amounts owing to the Professional are paid in the Pay Run for the week in which the Employment ends, and in any case within the time the applicable award requires for payment on termination of employment.

The end of the Employment does not affect any right the Professional has under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), including the general protections, and does not affect any accrued entitlement to be paid for work already performed.

12. Becoming permanent

A casual employee may, after the qualifying period in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), give their employer written notification under the employee choice pathway that they believe they no longer meet the definition of a casual employee. The qualifying period runs from the start of the Employment, and is shorter for employers who are not small business employers. The employer must then consult and respond in writing within the time the Act requires, and may only refuse on the grounds the Act allows. The Casual Employment Information Statement explains the pathway.

That is a matter between the Clinic and the Professional. Cover Dental is not a party to it.

A Clinic and a Professional are free to agree to work together outside the Platform, including on a permanent or ongoing basis. Cover Dental charges no placement, buyout or conversion fee. Work arranged outside the Platform is not covered by this Contract (see Section 5.5 of the Terms).

13. Cover Dental is not a party to this Contract

Cover Labs Pty Ltd (ACN 691 951 096), trading as Cover Dental, publishes this Contract but is not a party to it. It is not the employer, host employer or employer of record of any Professional. It is not a labour hire provider, recruitment agency or employment agent, and it does not supply, place or assign workers to Clinics.

Cover Dental does not direct, supervise or control the work, does not choose which Professional works a Shift, does not set the rate the Clinic agrees to pay, and is not a guarantor of either party's obligations. It sets a minimum ordinary hourly rate for each role at no less than the award minimum for the highest classification ordinarily applicable to that role (Section 4), and generates each Shift Schedule from the details the Clinic enters. It has no liability to either party under this Contract. Its role, and the limits on its liability, are set out in Sections 3 and 22 of the Terms.

14. If something goes wrong

The Clinic and the Professional should raise any concern about the Employment or an Engagement with each other first. Either can contact Cover Dental at support@cover.dental, and we may help informally by reviewing clock-in records, messages and timestamps. Any view we give is not binding on either party and resolves nothing legally.

Nothing in this Contract limits either party's right to contact the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Fair Work Commission, AHPRA, a workers' compensation authority, a work health and safety regulator or any other regulator, or to pursue any other legal remedy.

15. This is a standard form, and it is not legal advice

This Contract is a standard form. It is the same for every Clinic, every Professional, every role and every site on the Platform. It has not been prepared for, tailored to or reviewed against the circumstances of any particular Clinic, Professional, workplace or engagement.

Cover Dental is a software company, not a law firm. Nothing in this Contract is legal, employment, industrial relations or tax advice, and providing it is not the provision of legal services. Each party is responsible for satisfying itself that its own arrangements comply with the law, and should obtain its own advice. A Clinic that has an enterprise agreement, a workplace policy or an existing employment arrangement should check how this Contract sits alongside it. Where it does not sit comfortably, Section 4 governs: the instrument prevails.

A Clinic and a Professional may agree additional terms between themselves. Additional terms that give the Professional a greater benefit prevail over this Contract. Otherwise, this Contract prevails to the extent of any inconsistency.

16. Law of this Contract

This Contract is governed by the law of the State or Territory in which the work is performed, and by the applicable laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. The parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State or Territory and the courts that hear appeals from them.

Section 26 of the Terms chooses a different law for the separate relationship between each User and Cover Dental. That choice does not apply to this Contract, which is between a Clinic and a Professional about work done at a particular workplace.

17. Changes to this Contract

Cover Dental may publish an updated version of this Contract. For a change that is material and adverse to either party, it will give notice through the Platform or by email at least 30 days before the updated version takes effect.

An updated version applies to Engagements accepted after it takes effect. An Engagement already accepted continues on the version in force when it was accepted, which its Shift Schedule records. If either party needs a copy of an earlier version, ask us at support@cover.dental and we will provide it.

18. Contact

Questions about the Employment or an Engagement go to the other party. A Professional's questions about pay, hours or the workplace go to the Clinic, as employer. Questions about the Platform or about this document go to support@cover.dental.