National Employment Standards
The National Employment Standards (NES) is a list of (originally) ten minimum entitlements for employees in Australia who are covered by the "Fair Work Act 2009". An award, enterprise agreement, other registered agreement or employment contract cannot provide for conditions that are less than the national minimum wage or the NES and they can not be excluded. The NES have applied to employees since 1 January 2010, having replaced the previous five entitlement standard (called the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard) under the WorkChoices legislation. History. Under the WorkChoices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act  1996, employees were entitled to a system of entitlements in five key areas, called the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard (or APFCS): Safety net. There are ten minimum conditions covered under the National Employment Standards: 11 Casual employment pathway to permanent employment Casual employees. Casual employees are entitled to a limited number of NES entitlements relating to: In some states and territories long serving casuals are eligible for long service leave. Where there is an expectation of ongoing work for a casual and the casual has been employed regularly and systematically for at least 12 months, they have extra  entitlements from the NES. These are: Criticism. Not all commentators agreed that the Rudd government had struck the right balance between simplification and appropriate protection. Baird and Williamson, for example, argued that the new minimum standards were detrimental to certain groups, particularly women, because the new awards failed to adequately cover women working in social services, call centres and the health sector.