At a glance: what are our legal rights and obligations in recruiting an employee?

Recruitment of an employee to a not-for-profit organisation usually involves:

• writing and placing a job advertisement to attract the best candidates
• screening applications
• interviewing applicants
• conducting referee checks
• selecting the best applicant for the job, and
• informing candidates whether they have been successful or not.

There is general information on recruitment and retention, including a guide on 'the basics of recruitment for NFPs' and a comprehensive tool kit at the Department of Planning and Community Development.

For more information on recruitment generally, go to Business Victoria.

The Fairwork Australia website includes information about the steps for formally employing staff and some templates and letters of engagement for casual, part-time or full-time employees.

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Equal opportunity and anti-discrimination law

PilchConnect has produced an Information sheet on discrimination in recruiting employees under Victorian law:

There are also Commonwealth laws which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, age, disability and race.  The Australian Human Rights Commission has guidelines to help employers comply with federal anti-discrimination laws during recruitment.  

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Australian Consumer Law

Especially when you advertise a position, but throughout the recruitment process, you must be truthful about:

• salary
• work conditions
•  key duties, and 
• future employment prospects

to ensure you don't breach your legal obligations under the Australian Consumer law.

If your organisation misleads job seekers or misrepresents any aspect of an available position, you might incur penalties under Australian Consumer Law.

Before you place your ad, go to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's website and read 'Misleading job and business opportunity adverts: how to handle them'.

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Screening procedures for potential candidates

Whenever your not-for-profit organisation is looking to recruit you need to conduct appropriate screening procedures for potential candidates. You may have legal obligations to conduct certain levels of checks before you recruit.  For more information go to:

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Privacy laws

Usually in the recruitment process your organisation gains access to personal information about candidates, so the privacy laws might apply and govern the ways your organisation should manage that information.

Even if the privacy laws don't apply to your organisation, the ways your organisation uses, stores and discloses that information might impact on your reputation, so it is worth considering how best to approach information that might be private or sensitive.

PilchConnect has produced a guide on privacy, go to Privacy.

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Resources

Recruitment process

Legal obligations

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