Changes to Casual Employment

The Fair Work Act 2009 was amended on 26 March 2021 to change workplace rights & obligations for casual employees. These changes came into effect on Saturday 27 March 2021.
 

What Has Changed?

The introduction of the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS)

To accompany the Fair Work Information Statement which already needs to be provided to all new employees, employers must now also provide every new casual employee a CEIS, before, or as soon as possible after, they start their new job.

Small Business employers need to give their existing casual employees a copy as soon as possible after the 27th March 2021. Other employers need to provide this to all of their existing casuals as soon as possible after 27th September 2021.
 

The definition of casual employment:

Under the new definition, a person is a casual employee if they accept a job offer from an employer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work.

Once employed, an employee will continue to be a casual employee until they either:

1. become a permanent employee through casual conversion or, are offered & accept a full-time or part-time position or;
2. stop being employed by the employer.
    
   

The pathway for casual employees to move to fulltime or part-time employment

The Amendment Act provides for a new entitlement to the NES giving casual employees a pathway to become permanent employees. An employer (excluding Small Business) now has to offer their casual employees a conversion to permanent employment when the employee:

• Has worked for their employer for 12 months
• Has a regular pattern of hours for at least 6 of those 12 months, on an ongoing basis
• Could continue working those hours as a permanent employee without significant changes.

The exceptions to this rule are:

• Small Business employers
• If an employer has ‘reasonable grounds’ not to make an offer to convert

For more information in regards to casual employees, or to download the Fair Work Information Statement or the Casual Employment Information Statement, please head to the Fair Work Ombudsman website : https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/types-of-employees/casual-part-time-and-full-time/casual-employees

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