Everything in people operations sits on a legal floor — Fair Work to WHS, awards to termination. This toolkit distils that floor into eleven modules you can act from: the verdicts, the controls, the pitfalls and the primary sources, without the folder of PDFs. Read one module when the issue lands, or all eleven to hold the whole surface.
Reference libraryDepth to draw on, not required reading — open a module when the issue lands. On scope: this takes a federal national-system lens with South Australian overlays. The SA public sector industrial context and the specific enterprise agreements I work to run deeper than a published pack should go; that detail belongs in the engagement.
Which system, which institution, which date: the Fair Work Act map, FWC/FWO/DEWR roles, and the 2022–2026 reform timeline with SA overlays.
Open module → Module 02The NES minimums as runnable workflows — flexible-work clocks, cash-out rules, FDV confidentiality — plus the SA long service leave overlay.
Open module → Module 03The pay stack as a rules engine — awards, classifications, the Annual Wage Review, EA base rates and super on OTE — with controls that survive an audit.
Open module → Module 04Full-time to gig: what each engagement type means for entitlements, the 2024–26 casual, contractor and labour-hire reforms, and the statements each type triggers.
Open module → Module 05The EA lifecycle end-to-end — when to bargain, good faith, genuine agreement and the BOOT, FWC lodgement, and the payroll governance that keeps agreements honest.
Open module → Module 06When consultation is legally triggered — rosters, major change, redundancy, transfers, WHS — and how to run and evidence a process that holds up.
Open module → Module 07Delegate rights and their dates, entry-permit and notice verification, the Closing Loopholes reforms and the SA WHS overlay — a calm, logged interface for union engagement.
Open module → Module 08Triage the exit pathways, run a fair process, keep the evidence — notice, final pay, genuine redundancy, the 21-day clock and SA’s 28-day rule.
Open module → Module 09Adverse action and the reverse onus, the 21-day FWC clock, sexual harassment law since March 2023, the positive duty, and SA’s psychosocial overlay.
Open module → Module 10Compliance as a system you run, not a list you remember: onboarding gates, seven-year records, registers, the compliance calendar and an audit-ready assurance loop.
Open module → Module 11WHS Act (SA) duties, the psychosocial regulations, industrial manslaughter, notifiable incidents and the hardened return-to-work duty — psychological safety as safety law.
Open module → Appendix · The Fact RegisterEvery fact in the pack — statement, jurisdiction, effective date and primary sources — in one register. Update here first, then cascade across modules.
Open the register →In the practice’s four frames, everything starts at 01 · Operations — get control of the work. A people team can’t partner strategically while the floor is uncertain, and a leader can’t delegate safely onto a surface nobody has mapped. This pack is that map: the same translation discipline as Clear at the Bench — the hard thinking done once, so the person holding the decision gets clarity at the moment it counts.
Start anywhere. If you’re new to the system, read 01 → 03 in order — jurisdiction, floor, pay — and keep the Fact Register within reach for everything else.
This toolkit is the method in the open. When you’re ready to run it on your organisation, it starts with a conversation.
Start the conversation →