Employee Classification Review Checklist

Why run a classification review

Misclassification is rarely deliberate. Someone was hired casually in a busy patch and never converted; a role grew but the award level didn't; an old contract says "contractor" while the working reality says employee. The problem compounds quietly — underpayments accrue, leave balances are wrong, and the eventual fix costs far more than the review that would have caught it. Running this checklist once or twice a year keeps the gap small.

This is general information about how to structure a review, not advice on any individual's employment status — for rulings on your specific circumstances, the Fair Work Ombudsman and a workplace lawyer are the right ports of call.

Set up the review

• Build a single list of every worker, including casuals, part-timers, fixed-term staff and contractors. The people missing from your HR system are usually the ones misclassified.
• Gather source documents for each person: employment contract, position description, current award or agreement classification, and recent payslips. Gaps in this pile are findings in themselves.
• Identify which industrial instrument covers each role — the relevant Modern Award, an enterprise agreement, or award-free arrangements. The Fair Work Ombudsman's tools can help you confirm award coverage.

Check employment type

• Casual vs permanent: compare the contract against the actual pattern of work. A "casual" working a firm, regular roster may have conversion rights — check the current casual conversion rules with the Fair Work Ombudsman, as these have changed in recent years.
• Full-time vs part-time: confirm contracted hours match hours actually worked. Persistent extra hours for part-timers can trigger overtime or a required contract variation depending on the award.
• Fixed-term contracts: check length and renewals against the current limitations on fixed-term arrangements — rolling renewals are a common trip-wire.
• Contractor vs employee: for anyone invoicing you, look at the whole working relationship, not the label on the agreement. If this applies to several people, run our contractor engagement checklist as a companion piece — and note the ATO and Fair Work apply their own separate tests.

Check award level and pay

• Match each role's actual duties to its award classification level. Read the classification definitions, not just the titles — duties drift upward over time while classifications stay frozen.
• Verify base rates against the award's current rates (published by the Fair Work Ombudsman and updated after each annual wage review — always check the current figures rather than last year's spreadsheet).
• Check allowances, penalties and loadings are being applied: weekend and overtime penalties, casual loading, tool or travel allowances, and any annualised-salary arrangements against their award rules.
• Confirm superannuation is calculated on the right earnings base and paid on time — the ATO sets the current rate and due dates, and payday super changes the cadence, so verify the current rules.

Check entitlements and records

• Reconcile leave balances for annual, personal and long service leave (long service rules are state-based — check your state's authority).
• Confirm every employee has received the required information statements current at their start date, and that contracts reflect today's role, not the one they were hired into.
• Verify your record-keeping meets Fair Work requirements — time records, payslip content, and retention periods.

Close out the review

• Log every discrepancy with a severity and an owner. Underpayments need calculating and rectifying promptly — the Fair Work Ombudsman publishes guidance on self-resolving underpayments.
• Fix the cause, not just the instance: if a role was misclassified, update the position description and your onboarding process so the next hire is right by default.
• Diarise the next review. Annually at minimum, and again whenever awards change materially or roles are restructured.

Classification is one of those back-office disciplines that's invisible until it isn't. If people-compliance keeps falling to whoever has spare time, our people services page explains how to put it on a proper footing.