Changes to casual employment laws

Recent changes to casual employment laws mean your existing casuals may be eligible to be offered permanent employment.

By 27 September 2021, employers – other than small business employers- need to assess whether any existing casual employees are eligible to be offered to convert to permanent employment.

Casual employees who have worked for their employer for 12 months need to be offered the option to convert to full-time or part-time (permanent) employment by their employer.

Employers need to:

• make a written offer to convert their casual employees to permanent employment (this must be done within 21 days after making the assessment), or
• write to employees explaining why they won’t be made an offer (this needs to be done within 21 days of making the assessment but by no later than 27 September 2021).

To accept an offer to convert, employees need to respond in writing within 21 days after getting the offer. If they don’t respond, employers can assume that they’ve declined the offer.

Certain eligibility requirements need to be met for conversion to permanent employment to occur.

While small business employers aren’t required to offer casual conversion to their casual employees, those working in businesses with fewer than 15 employees can request to convert to permanent employment at any time on or after their 12-month anniversary. Existing casuals working for a small business employer before 27 March 2021 can also make a request to convert to permanent at any time from 27 March 2021 if they are eligible.

Keeping on top of changing casual employment laws can be challenging and realistically, who has time to keep track of this while building your business? The answer? We do. Bare Bones Consulting knows HR and can help you with the right structure for your business, people and budget. And we speak plain English so you understand the how, what, when and why we’re suggesting it. Sounds good, right?

Call us today or shoot us an email here. Simple.