As of March 27th 2021, changes to casual employment have come into effect under the Fair Work Act. To ensure your business is complying with the latest legislation, we’ve provided a breakdown of the new changes to casual employment and the ways in which employees can now move into permanent employment.

In Summary:

For those employers with Casual staff, here’s a summary of what you need to know:

There is a new definition for casual employment
Pathway opportunities are now defined for casual employees to become permanent full-time or part-time
A Casual Employment Information Statement now needs to be provided to all casual staff

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Defining a Casual Employee

The Fair Work Act 2009 has been revised to include a new definition of a ‘casual employee’, which is:

“An individual accepting a job offer from an employer with no assigned commitment or agreement to have ongoing work. ”

It is important to understand that once an individual is employed as a casual, they will remain a casual unless:

They are offered a permanent part-time or full-time contract
They no longer wish to be employed by the employer

This applies to all casual employee who commenced work before 27 March 2021 and any new employees.

What is Casual Conversion?

In accordance with the National Employment Standards, casual employees are now entitled to become permanent part-time or full-time employees, if they have been employed for at least 12 months or more.

There are certain rules, processes and protocols that surround this casual conversion and employers should make themselves aware of the detail. A small business that has less than 15 employees does not need to offer casual conversion.

In a business with 15 employees or over, either the employee or employer may initiate the casual conversion process. It will be advantageous for businesses to offer this proactively to avoid any backdating or being caught unaware. We do recommend that such change is documented in a written contract for each new employee.

Casual Employment Information Statement

The Fair Work Ombudsman has updated and published a document titled the ‘Casual Employment Information Statement’ (CEIS), which details all of the new information casual employees need to know.

This document must be given to new casual employees when they start work, and includes:

new definition of a casual employee
when an employer must offer casual conversion
when an employer does not have to offer casual conversion
appropriate timing a casual can request conversion change
entitlement of a casual employed by a small business
how the Fair Work Commission can assist in dealing with workplace disputes revolving around casual conversion

Small business employers (fewer than 15 employees) must give their existing casual employees who were employed before 27 March 2021 a copy of the statement. Any new casual employee that starts in your business, must also receive this statement.

The statement can be downloaded through the Fair Work website.

How do I need to provide the CEIS?

There is no specific way that the CEIS needs to be provided to casual employees. Some of the ways we recommend include:

In person
By mail
By email
By emailing a link to the Fair Work page: Casual Employment Information Statement (fairwork.gov.au)
By fax

You must ensure that employees are given the version of the CEIS that is in place when issued. Make sure to regularly check the Fair Work Australia website for any updates to the CEIS.

If you have any questions regarding casual employee changes, obligations and entitlements, please reach out to our Employment Team via our online live chat or using the details below.

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CALL: 1300 784 687

Maree Galle is a HR Consultant at Melbourne HR

Edited by Nicole Torrington, Marketing Manager at Melbourne HR.

Understanding Changes to Casual Employment 2021