Employing casual employees?
If you employ casual employees, then these changes affect you and they start on 24 August 2024. The changes include how casual work is defined, the pathway to permanent employment and employee/employer responsibilities.
Under the new rules an employee will only be a casual employee if:
- there isn’t a ‘firm advance commitment’ to continuing and indefinite work, taking into account a number of factors, including the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship
- they’re entitled to receive a casual loading or specific casual pay rate
What’s considered a ‘firm advancement commitment’?
This is assessed on:
- the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship
- several other factors.
The other factors that must be considered include whether:
- the employer can offer or not offer work to the employee (and whether this is happening)
- the employee can accept or reject work
- it’s reasonably likely there will be future work available to the employer’s business, based on the nature of the business
- there are full-time or part-time employees performing the same kind of work in the employer’s business as the work the employee usually performs
- the employee has a regular pattern of work.
There is a new pathway for an employee to convert to a permanent employee if they want to. An employee will be able to notify their employer of their intention to change to a permanent employee if:
- have been employed for at least 6 months (or 12 months if working for a small business employer)
- believe they no longer meet the requirements of the new casual employee definition.
There’s also a requirement for an employer to provide a ‘Casual Employment Information Statement’ to all new casual employees and all casual employees after 12 months of employment and every subsequent 12 months of employment (if classed as small business employer). A copy of the statement can be found at the following link.
Author
Kim Jay