New Casual Workers Laws in Australia: What you need to know.

If you are a business owner who employs staff on a casual basis or a casual worker yourself, there are some updates to Australia’s Casual Worker laws that you need to know.

Here is a breakdown of the amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth):

1. New Definition of a ‘Casual Employee’

The Fair Work Act has been amended to include a new definition of a casual employee.

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 as a casual, an employee will continue to be a casual employee until:

  • they become a permanent employee through:
    • casual conversion, or
    • being offered and accepting full-time or part-time employment, or
  • they stop being employed by the employer.

What does A Firm Advance Commitment to a Continuing and Indefinite Pattern of Work Mean?

When determining whether you have made a firm advance commitment to a continuing and indefinite pattern of work, consider if:

  • The employment is described as casual employment, or
  • The employee is entitled to casual loading a specific rate of pay for casual employees, and
  • The employee is required to work on a “needs” basis for the employer

What if there is a Regular Pattern of Hours of Work?

A regular pattern of hours does not necessarily indicate a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work. If, for example, you work a regular pattern on 8 hours a week, this would not indicate a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work and you would likely be a causal employee.

If, however, you are employed on a basis to work 2 x 8 hour shifts on the same days on a weekly and indefinite basis, then this would be a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work. As such, you would not be casual employee.

2. ‘Regular Casual Employee’ are now included in the Act

Prior to these amendments, the Act provided for ‘Long Term Casual Employees’. This has now been amended and replaced with a new definition for ‘Regular Casual Employees’.

In accordance with section 12,  an employee is a ‘regular casual employee’ if, at that time:

  • The employee is a casual employee, and
  • The employee has been employed by the employer on a regular and systemic basis.

So, what does this mean?

The National Employment Standards now include an entitlement for casual employees to become full-time or part-time (permanent) in some circumstances. This is also known as ‘casual conversion’.

Casual conversion is when a ‘casual employee’ has the right to be offered or request permanent employment.

In order to be eligible for ‘casual conversion’, the ‘casual employee’ must:

  • Have been employed for 12 months or more,
  • Have worked regular and systemic hours for at least 6 months and
  • Your regular hours could continue as a permanent employee without significant changes.

Making an offer:

When making an offer to an employee, the offer must:

  • Be in writing,
  • Be an offer for the employment to convert to either full-time or part-time work, and
  • Be given to the employee within 21 days from when the employee reached 12 months of employment.

If an employee is eligible, then an employer is under an obligation to offer permanent employment, unless there are reasonable grounds to not make the offer.

Making a Request:

A casual employee has the right make a request for casual conversion if:

  • They are eligible for casual conversion (as discussed above),
  • They have not refused a previous offer of casual conversion in the past 6 months,
  • The employer has not provided notice detailing that they will not offer casual conversion on reasonable grounds, and
  • The employer has not refused a previous request for casual conversion.

I am a small business – does this apply to me?

Under Section 23 of the Act, a small business owner is an employer who employs less than 15 employees at one time.

If you are a small business owner within the meaning of the Act, then you are not under an obligation to offer casual conversion. However, your employees are entitled to request casual conversion if they satisfy the criteria described above.

Key Takeaways

As an employee of casual workers or a casual worker yourself, it is vital that you understand the new laws and your rights.

In summary, the new amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), require employers to:

  1. Make no firm advance commitment tot a continuing and indefinite pattern of work when offering casual employment,
  2. Understand and implement casual conversion,
  3. Small business owners are not obliged to offer casual employment however, their employees are entitled to make a request.

For more information on the new reforms it is essential that you read the ‘Casual Employees Information Statement’ which details the new casual worker reforms. The Act requires that all employers provide the Information Statement to all casual employees before or as soon as practicable after the casual employee begins their employment.

If you need any assistance in understanding your rights in accordance with these new Casual Workers Laws, contact our team or call us at 02 8644 6000, and we’ll be happy to discuss all your legal requirements.

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Mark Lazarus, the visionary behind the business and the fresh blood of the Lazarus Legal team, Mark (or Laz as he is often known) owes much of his success to his past experiences. And he’s made it his personal goal to bring that wisdom and formula to the firm.

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New Casual Workers Laws in Australia: What you need to know.

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Barry Lazarus

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barry@lazaruslegal.com.au 

We’d be lying if we told you that this bloke isn’t the big honcho of our team, but his name is a dead give-away. The founder of Lazarus Legal, Barry is an old school, tough as nails lawyer. They don’t forge litigators like this anymore.

With decades of experience in both Australia and South Africa, his wisdom is as renowned as his name. Back in the days when Schwarzenegger and Van Damme were kicking ass on VHS, Barry was kicking ass in the courtroom. And after all these years, he still has a reputation for refusing to back down.Barry is definitely the badass you’d want in a fight – in court or otherwise. But really, he’s a big softie. Just don’t let him know you know that (although he probably won’t read this anyway – navigating the Internet is not his strong point).

Aside from putting other lawyers in their place, taking long walks on the beach and spending time with his family, Barry enjoys seeing others succeed. Not only is Barry a staunch and unmoving litigator, he has sharp business and commercial acumen having started up ventures from scratch and growing them into full-blown franchises – from real estate to creating ice cream, to making pasta. With his experience on both sides of the commercial and legal equation, you want this guy to be on your side, whether you’re the next Zuckerberg realising your genius, or the next Zuckerberg taking on your opponents in court.

When Barry is not busy lawyering about, he is a part-time lawn bowler and a wannabe comedian, but never took both as a day job, because let’s face it, he’s a lot better at his day job.

If someone ever threatens you to lawyer up…relax, call Barry and he’ll handle the rest. 

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Mark Lazarus

Director

mark@lazaruslegal.com.au 

The visionary behind the business and the fresh blood of the Lazarus Legal team, Mark (or Laz as he is often known) owes much of his success to his past stories and experiences. And he’s made it his personal goal to bring that wisdom and formula to the firm.

He’s a bit of jet setter, splitting his time between Australia and the UK, maximising every hour of his professional life. He thrives on this adrenalin. It allowed him to work in private practice in Sydney, act for a host of famous celebrities in London, do a two year stint as a NSW barrister (and not the pretentious coffee type in the Melbourne laneways) and more recently did a gig as the Legal Director covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa for one of the world’s coolest fast-moving consumer good brands!  

As an Aussie and UK lawyer and former barrister, Mark not only has the gift of the gab but he’ll walk the walk to prove it too. He likes to think he’s a bit like Harvey Specter or Michael Corleone, the main difference is you can actually retain him as your lawyer and consigliere. He’ll tell you how it really is and will take on any challenge head on. Although litigation and court advocacy comes naturally to him, commercial and IP is what gets his blood pumping! 

When Mark is not out there doing his thing, you will probably catch him chilling at home with his family, on the sidelines of the soccer (football) pitch cheering on his two boys, crawling through mud obstacles, or training hard at the gym. Passion and commitment is what drives Mark to succeed, along with his burning desire to disrupt the legal profession by finding new ways to change the game.

He has sights on the future. So if you’re breaking new ground, ahead of the times, and on the verge of something big, but you need someone who’s got your back and who can give you straight up advice, this is the guy you will want on speed dial.

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