Following on from our update last month regarding a recent court decision affecting employers of casual employees, two more recent changes have (or will shortly) come into effect regarding casual employees.

Casual Employees covered under the General Retail Award 2010
From 1 November 2018, casual retail employees employed on Saturdays will receive an extra 15% for all work, bringing their total loading to 140%.  An additional 5% will be added to all casual hours worked after 6:00pm.

Casual Employees – All Awards
On 1 October 2018, a new clause inserted into every Award came into effect allowing regular casual employees the right to request that their employment be converted to full-time or part-time employment (depending on the regular hours being worked by the casual employee).

A regular casual employee is a casual employee who has in the last 12 months worked a pattern of hours on an ongoing basis which, without significant adjustment, the employee could continue to perform as a full-time employee or part-time employee under the Award.

A request by a casual employee to convert to either full-time or part-time employment must be in writing and provided to the employer.

Upon receipt of this written request, the employer may:

• agree to the request (i.e convert the casual employee to permanent employment); or
• refuse the request, but the request may only be refused on reasonable grounds and after there has been consultation with the employee.

Reasonable grounds for refusal include that:

• it would require a significant adjustment to the casual employee’s hours of work in order for the employee to be engaged as a full-time or part-time employee in accordance with the provisions of the Award (i.e the casual employee is not truly a regular casual employee);
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that the regular casual employee’s position will cease to exist within the next 12 months;
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that the hours of work which the regular casual employee is required to perform will be significantly reduced in the next 12 months; or
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that there will be a significant change in the days and/or times at which the employee’s hours of work are required to be performed in the next 12 months which cannot be accommodated within the days and/or hours during which the employee is available to work.

For any ground of refusal to be reasonable, it must be based on facts which are known or reasonably foreseeable.

Where the employer refuses a regular casual employee’s request to convert to full-time or part-time, the employer must provide the casual employee with the employer’s reasons for refusal in writing within 21 days of the request being made.

If the employee does not accept the employer’s refusal, the dispute can be dealt with under the Dispute Resolution clause in the relevant Award, and referred to the Commission if the dispute cannot be resolved at the workplace level.

Where it is agreed that a casual employee will have their employment converted to full-time or part-time employment, the employer and employee must discuss and record the new arrangement in writing.

IMPORTANT – An employer must provide EVERY casual employee with a copy of the conversion to permanent employment clause in the Award within the first 12 months of the employee’s first engagement to perform work.  In respect of casual employees already employed as at 1 October 2018, an employer must provide such employees with a copy of that clause by 1 January 2019.

Members can download a copy of the conversion to permanent employment clause in the Award from within their online Member Account under the name Notice of Right to Convert from Casual to Permanent – this document should be provided to each current casual employee as soon as possible, and to each new casual employee with their Employment Agreement when they are first employed.