What are the overtime rules in Australia?

Employers in Australia can request that employees work reasonable overtime hours. Overtime work can include work performed beyond an employee’s ordinary hours of work, outside the agreed number of hours, or outside the spread of ordinary hours. The spread of hours represents the times of day when employees work ordinary hours, for example, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm.  


Employees can refuse to work overtime if the request is unreasonable. Health and safety issues must be considered and managed if an employee needs to work overtime. To ensure you follow legal requirements and fairly compensate employees for hours worked, you can work with a local PEO. A PEO provider can administer payroll for your employees, including pay for overtime hours. 


If you have questions about wages and hours regulations in Australia, please get in touch with our team today! 

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