Employment Law Update: Changes to Casual Employment Rules

From 26^th February 2025, eligible casual employees can provide written notice to their employer to change to full or part-time employment under the new employee choice pathway. This notice can only be refused for certain reasons. Here are some points to consider:

• A “casual employee” is defined as an employee who at the time they commenced work, shared a relationship of ‘no firm advance commitment’ to ongoing work, and, are paid under a specific casual pay rate or casual loading (or similar in an enterprise agreement or employment contract).
• Only employees who have worked for their employer for at least 6 months, or 12 months if they work for a small business, are eligible.
• However, casuals employed by a small business before 26^th August 2024 will not be eligible to give notice until 26^th August 2025. Until this date, previous casual conversion provisions apply. No time spent working for the employer before 26^th August 2024 counts towards eligibility.
• To be eligible, the employee must believe they no longer meet the definition of a casual employee, must not have a current dispute with their employer as to casual conversion under way, and must not have refused an offer of conversion, or had a dispute with their employer over conversion, in the last 6 months.
• An employer can only refuse under certain reasons, which include if they believe the employee still meets the definition of a casual employee, or based on fair and reasonable operational grounds (such as the impact on business operations or employee operations, or because of the legalities of the employee’s employment conditions), or because it would mean the employer would no longer comply with a legal obligation under recruitment or selection processes.
• If an award or enterprise agreement has casual conversion provisions that are more beneficial than these National Employment Standards, those rules apply.
• Templates for both employees providing notice, and employers responding to notice, are provided by Fair Work.

The above information is an adaptation of information provided to the public by Fair Work. We recommend an employee or employer affected by these rule changes consult the Fair Work website for more information and resources.

Resources:

Reminder about changes to casual employment rules – Fair Work Ombudsman

sts-notifying-your-employer-to-change-to-permanent.docx

Becoming a permanent employee – Fair Work Ombudsman

Casual employees – Fair Work Ombudsman