Casual Conversion

There are new industrial reforms affecting the employment of casual personnel. Amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) that came into effect on 27 March 2021 change the workplace entitlements and obligations for casual employees.

A person is now a defined as casual employee if they accept an offer for a job from an employer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work.

There is now an entitlement for casual employees to become full-time or part-time (permanent) through a process known as 'casual conversion'. Casual employees can become permanent by their employer offering casual conversion or by making a request to their employer for casual conversion.

All employers must inform casual employees of these rights

Employers must provide to employees with a document known as a Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) that details the employees’ rights.

The CEIS must be presented to existing employees and every new casual employee before, or as soon as possible after, they start their new job.

All new employees must also be given a Fair Work Statement which can be found here.

If your club is a small business employer

If you employ less than 15 employees:

• You must provide your casual employees with a copy of the CEIS;
• You do not have to offer casual conversion to your employees;
• Your casual employees can request casual conversion any time on or after their 12-month anniversary and there are timeframes in which you must respond and rules surrounding any refusal for conversion.

If your club is not a small business employer

If you employ more than 15 employees:

• You must provide your casual employees with a copy of the CEIS.
• By September 27, 2021, you must assess your casual employees with regard to their eligibility for permanent conversion and either:
  • offer to convert their employment to full or part time employment; or
  • advise in writing, why you are not making an offer of conversion
• On an ongoing basis you are required to assess your employees for casual conversion within 21 days of their first anniversary date.
• Your casual employees can also request casual conversion any time on or after their 12-month anniversary and there are timeframes in which you must respond and rules surrounding any refusal for conversion.

Casual employees who receive an offer must either accept or decline the offer, in writing, within 21 days of receiving it or the offer is assumed to be declined.

Reasonable grounds for not making an offer or refusing a request

If an employer decides to not make an offer, or refuses to accept a request, for a casual employee to convert to permanent on ‘reasonable grounds’, the reasonable grounds they rely on have to be based on facts that are known or reasonably foreseeable.

Reasonable grounds for deciding not to make an offer can include that, in the next 12 months:

• the employee’s position won’t exist;
• the employee’s hours of work will significantly reduce;
• the employee’s days or times of work will significantly change, and that can’t be accommodated within the employee’s available days or times for work.

Reasonable grounds can also include:

• making the offer would not comply with a recruitment or selection process required by or under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law
• the employer would have to make a significant adjustment to the employee’s work hours for them to be employed full-time or part-time.

Information Source: Fair Work Australia

Protections at work

An employer can’t reduce or change an employee’s hours of work, or terminate their employment, to avoid having to offer or accept a request for casual conversion. For example, an employer can’t deliberately change their employee’s roster so they don’t meet the eligibility requirements.

Casual employees are also protected against adverse action by an employer because they have a workplace right to convert to permanent employment. For more information on protections from adverse action.

Regular and systematic casual employees may also be protected from unfair dismissal. See Unfair dismissal.

Information Source: Fair Work Australia