Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
"award" means an order, industrial agreement, determination or common rule declaration in force at the time of the employment of the employee under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 of the Commonwealth.
"casual employee" means a person who has entered into an arrangement with an employer under which:
(a) the employment is irregular and not fixed days or at fixed times;
(b) employment is available and the person works only when required by the employer; and
(c) there is no continuing contract of employment with the employer requiring the person to work on a subsequent occasion at a specified time.
"employee" means a person to whom this Act applies who has entered into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer, whether the contract is express or implied, oral or in writing, on salary, wages or piecework rates or as a member of a butty gang, full-time or part-time, or as an outworker.
"normal daily number of hours of work" means:
(a) in the case of an employee who is required by the terms of employment to work a fixed number of hours (not being hours of overtime) per day – the number of hours so fixed; or
(b) in the case of any other employee – the average number of hours (not being hours of overtime) per day worked during the 12 months ending on the date when the employee commences annual leave, or the date of termination of employment or the death of the employee, as the case requires.
"normal weekly hours of work" means:
(a) in the case of an employee who is required by the terms of employment to work a fixed number of hours (not being hours of overtime) per week – the number of hours so fixed; or
(b) in the case of any other employee – the average number of hours (not being hours of overtime) per week worked during periods of actual employment in the 12 months ending on the date of termination of employment or the death of the employee as the case requires.
"ordinary pay", in relation to an employee, means remuneration for the employee's normal weekly number of hours of work calculated at the ordinary time rate of pay of the employee and ordinary rate of pay has a corresponding meaning.
"ordinary time rate of pay" means:
(a) in the case of an employee who is remunerated in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay fixed by the terms of employment of the employee, the time rate of pay so fixed;
(b) in the case of an employee:
(i) who is remunerated otherwise than in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay so fixed, or partly in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay so fixed and partly in relation to any other manner; or
(ii) where no ordinary time rate of pay is so fixed for an employee's work under the terms of the employment,
the average time rate of pay earned by the employee during the period actually worked by the employee in the service of the employer during the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date when the employee enters on leave or preceding the termination of the employment of the employee or the death of the employee, as the case may be.
"pay", in relation to an employee, means the pay, salary, wages or remuneration in respect of his or her employment.
"public holiday" means a day to be observed as a public holiday under the Public Holidays Act .
"shift worker" means an employee who:
(a) is rostered or required, for the purpose of completing the normal daily hours of work, to work for a period of time after 10 o'clock in the evening and before half past 6 o'clock in the morning; and
(b) in the normal course of employment, is regularly rostered for work or is required to work on any of the days of each week, including a day that is a public holiday.
(2) A reference in this Act to an employee's pay shall be read as including a reference to:
(a) an over-award payment, industry, leading hand, skill or qualification allowance or service grant;
(b) any amounts payable to the employee under a bonus or incentive scheme, being amounts that are usually paid to the employee with his or her pay for normal weekly hours of work;
(c) if the employee is provided with free board or lodging by the employer – an amount equal to the value of that board or lodging fixed by or under the terms of employment or, if not so fixed, $15 per week for board or $5 per week for lodging; and
(d) any allowance of a specified kind prescribed by the Regulations to be included in an employee's pay for the purposes of this Act or a provision of this Act,
but not including a reference to district allowance, site allowance, climatic allowance or any other allowance or payment in respect of overtime or penalty rates of pay.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, the fact that:
(a) some or all of an employee's pay consists of a share of the earnings of the employer; or
(b) a vehicle, vessel, machine, tool or other article for the performance of his or her work is obtained by the employee under a contract of hire in consideration of the payment of a fixed sum or a share of the earnings of the employer, or otherwise,
does not in itself prevent the person from being regarded as an employee.
(4) For the purpose of calculating an employee's ordinary rate of pay where, during a year, an employee is remunerated partly by ordinary pay and partly by commission, the total of the ordinary pay and the commission payable to the employee during the year shall be added together.
(5) Where, by a provision of a law that governs an award applying to an employee in the Territory, a person is deemed, for the purposes of that law, to be an employer of another person, the person so deemed to be an employer shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be an employer of that other person.