Casual Employment Contract

1. What this contract is, and when it starts

This is the Casual Employment Contract (this “Contract”). It forms part of the Cover Dental Terms of Service (the “Terms”), which every Clinic and every Professional accepts before using the Platform. Words that begin with a capital letter and are not defined here have the meaning given to them in Section 2 of the Terms.

Under Section 5.3 of the Terms, a Clinic and a Professional enter into an Engagement — casual employment of the Professional by the Clinic — when the Professional accepts a Shift or Booking. This Contract sets out the terms of that Engagement in one place. It takes effect at the moment of acceptance, without either party signing anything further. Accepting a Shift in the Platform is an electronic signature for the purposes of Section 23 of the Terms.

A separate Engagement, on this Contract, arises for each Shift or Booking accepted. Accepting a Booking accepts every day in it.

The parties to each Engagement are the Clinic that posted the Shift, as employer, and the Professional who accepted it, as casual employee.

2. The details of each Engagement

This Contract is the same for every Engagement. What differs from one Engagement to the next is the work itself, and those details live on the Shift or Booking record in the Platform, where both the Clinic and the Professional can see them at any time. They form part of this Contract as if set out in it.

A Clinic may edit a Shift until a Professional accepts it. After that, the details are fixed and 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 the Shift or Booking 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 the Engagement 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, family and domestic violence leave and the right to be absent on a public holiday.

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 terms of the Engagement. 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. Where this Contract is silent, the applicable instrument and the law fill the gap.

Identifying which award, enterprise agreement or classification applies to a particular Professional, at a particular Clinic, for particular work, is the Clinic's responsibility as the employer. Section 8.2 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 dates and at the times shown on the Shift, on time and in a fit state to work, with any equipment and personal protective equipment the Shift 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 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 Professional's nominated fund, 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 are the Clinic's to give

The Clinic must give the Professional the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement. Cover Dental does not give either statement on the Clinic's behalf, and the Platform does not do it automatically.

Both are published free by the Fair Work Ombudsman at fairwork.gov.au. The Casual Employment Information Statement must be given before, or as soon as possible after, the Professional starts, and again at the intervals the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) requires — which differ depending on whether the Clinic is a small business employer. The Clinic is responsible for knowing which intervals apply to it and for meeting them.

7. Hours, breaks and timesheets

The Professional is engaged for the hours shown on the Shift. 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 5.6 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 originally posted, and whether or not it was recorded accurately in the Platform. A Clinic must not approve a timesheet it knows to be wrong.

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.

8. Pay

The Professional is paid the hourly rate shown on the Shift for each hour worked. That rate must be at or above the minimum the applicable award or enterprise agreement requires for the work, and is inclusive of the casual loading that instrument requires. Setting the rate, and making sure it is lawful, is the Clinic's responsibility.

The Clinic pays the Professional's wages from its own bank account. Cover Dental never holds, receives, controls or pays wages, PAYG withholding or superannuation. Sections 3.2 and 8.4 of the Terms explain 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, no-shows and finishing early

Section 6 of the Terms governs what happens when a Shift is cancelled, when a Professional does not arrive, when a Professional is not ready to work, and when a Shift ends before its scheduled finish. Those provisions form part of this Contract and are not repeated here.

Whatever those provisions say, any minimum engagement entitlement, notice entitlement or other payment the applicable award, enterprise agreement or law gives the Professional still applies, and the Clinic remains responsible for it. Any decision a Clinic makes under Section 6.4 of the Terms must be lawful and reasonable, and must comply with employment and anti-discrimination law.

10. Confidentiality, patient information and property

The Professional will encounter confidential information during an Engagement, 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 the Engagement, and not retain copies.

These obligations continue after the Engagement 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. Ending the Engagement

The Engagement ends when the Shift or Booking is completed, or earlier if it ends under Section 9. No notice is required beyond anything the applicable award, enterprise agreement or the National Employment Standards require for a casual employee.

Ending an Engagement 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 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 has no role in it and is not notified of 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 5.7 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, is not a party to this Contract. 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, and is not a guarantor of either party's obligations. 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 18 of the Terms.

14. If something goes wrong

The Clinic and the Professional should raise any concern about 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 — but 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, provided those terms do not conflict with this Contract, the Terms, or any minimum entitlement. Where they do conflict, this Contract and the Terms prevail to the extent of the 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 22 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

We may amend this Contract. Because it forms part of the Terms, changes are notified and take effect in the way Section 20 of the Terms describes.

A change applies to Engagements formed after it takes effect. An Engagement already formed continues on the version of this Contract that was in force when the Shift or Booking was accepted. 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 an Engagement go to the other party to it — 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.