Casual Employee Changes

In March, a Bill was passed about casual employment and how organisations are treating their casuals.

The Fair Work Act (2009) has now been amended with these changes which are effective 27 March 2021.

Casual Information Statement

This statement outlines the definition of a casual employee, when an employer does or doesn’t have to offer casual conversion, when a casual can request casual conversion and how the process works for small business employers. It is available here.

Like the Fair Work Information Statement, all new casual employees need to be provided a copy upon commencement and all existing casual employees need to be issued a copy as soon as possible.

Casual conversion to full time or part time employment

If you employ more than 15 employees, you are obligated to offer a part time or full time role to your casual employees within 21 days of their 12 month anniversary on the basis that they:

• Have been employed for at least 12 months
• Have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for at least 6 months, and
• Could continue to do so without significant changes.

All offers must be in writing.

There are grounds to not offer casual conversion and they are:

• If a particular employee hasn’t worked a regular pattern of hours for at least 6 months, or
• The change to full time or part time employment would result in significant changes.

If this is the case or the business has further reasonable grounds, you are required to still write to the casual employee within 21 days of their anniversary and advise why you aren’t making an offer.

There is no obligation for a casual employee to accept a conversion offer and it is always best to get the declined offer in writing.

Small Business Employers

The requirements differ for small business employers (that is you employ less than 15 employees).

You are required to issue a copy of the Casual Information Statement to existing casual employees as soon as possible. Likewise for new casual employees.

You are, however, not required to offer casual conversion to your casual employees.

Despite this, your casual employees can request to convert to full time or part time employment provided they:

• Have been employed for at least 12 months
• Have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for at least 6 months
• Could continue to do so without significant changes.

Deadline to review your existing casual employees

For employers with greater than 15 employees (i.e. you are not a small business employer) you have until 27 September 2021 to assess all your existing casual employees employed prior to 27 March 2021 and determine who is eligible to be offered to convert to a permanent part time or full time position.

LMHR can take the pain away and help you conduct the assessment and prepare the relevant letters to ensure you comply with this new obligation.

Contact us today for a free consultation.