See our updated article on this topic with changes effective 24 August 2024 HERE.
A person is a casual employee if they accept a job offer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work, giving both parties flexibility.
From 27 March 2021 employers became obligated to offer casual conversion to casual employees who:
- have been employed by the employer for a period of 12 months; and
- have worked a regular pattern of hours on a regular basis for the past 6 months.
Employees who meet this criteria have the right to be offered or request permanent employment known as Casual Conversion; and the employee also has the right to decline a Casual Conversion offer made by the employer if the casual employment arrangement is their preference.
How should you make an offer?
The offer must be in writing, and be an offer for the employee to convert to either:
- Full-time employment if the employee currently works equivalent to full-time hours or
- Part-time employment if the employee currently works a consistent and regular pattern of hours that do not amount to a full-time workload
The offer must be given to the employee within 21 days from when the employee reached 12 months of employment with the employer.
Are there any exceptions to casual conversion?
The Fair Work Act states that an employer is not required to make an offer of casual conversion if:
- There are reasonable grounds not to make the offer; and
- The reasonable grounds are based on facts that are known or reasonably foreseeable at the time of deciding not to make the offer.
Reasonable grounds include:
- The employee’s position will cease to exist within 12 months of deciding not to make the offer e.g. the position is being made redundant within the next 12 months
- The hours of work that the employee performs will significantly reduce within the next 12 months
- There will be a significant change to the days and times that the employee works.
If you decide that it is reasonable to not make an offer of casual conversion, you must provide written notice of this decision to your casual employee.
In this notice you must include:
- Notice that you will not be making an offer of casual conversation; and
- Detailed reasons why you will not be making that offer.
This notice must be provided to the casual employee within 21 days from when the employee reached 12 months of employment with the organisation.
Does all of this apply to small businesses?
A small business owner as defined under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) is an employer who employs less than 15 employees at one time. If you are a small business owner:
- You are not required to offer your casual employees casual conversion
- However, your employees are entitled to request casual conversion if they satisfy the grounds to do so.
Casual Employees Information Statement
The Fair Work Ombudsman has published an Information Statement detailing new casual worker reforms. The purpose of this is to make the relevant information easily accessible to both employers and employees. The Information Statement includes:
- The meaning of a casual employee under the law
- What casual conversion is and how it works
- Reasonable grounds to not offer casual conversion
- Who can help if there is a dispute about the operation of the casual conversion laws.
Employees are required to provide the Information Statement to all casual employees before or as soon as practicable after the casual employee begins their employment. You can access the Casual Employment Information Statement on the FairWork website.
Upcoming Changes – Closing the Loopholes
Under the ‘Closing the Loopholes’ laws, there have been multiple changes to casual employment laws due to come into effect 26 August 2024. These include to:
- how casual work is defined
- the pathway to permanent employment
- employee and employer responsibilities.
This information along with other Closing the Loopholes changes can be found on the FairWork website. FCHR Members will be supported by our team to understand and apply these changes to their business.
Your next step
Review your workforce to identify any casual employees that may be elligible for an offer of Casual Coversion and ensure your onboarding processes include providing FairWork Information Statments.
Need a little help determining if you have casual employees that require casual conversion consideration or drafting the relevent correspondance? Book some time with our team by contacting us at hello@fullcirclehr.com.au or submit your enquiry HERE.