Employers And Employees, Are You Ready For The Changes To Casual Employment Coming This Month?
Closing the Loopholes Bill: Fair Work’s amendment to the definition of ‘Casual Employees’ will take effect from 26 August 2024.
Starting 26 August 2024 there will be some changes that affect casual employees. These updates include how casual work is defined, the shift from casual to permanent roles, and other important responsibilities for both employees and employers.
It is important to make sure your casual contracts are up to date and in line with the new changes to casuals.
What is the new definition of ‘casual employee’?
As of 26 August 2024, a casual employee will now fall under the following definition:
- The employment relationship has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work, taking into account a number of factors, and
- They’re entitled to a casual loading or specific casual pay rate under an award, registered agreement, or employment contract.
It is important to note that this does not apply to casuals employed before 26 August 2024. Casuals employed before 26 August will remain under the current casual definition which can be found here
Other key items from the Fair Work amendment Closing the Loopholes 2023 Bill include:
Casual Employment Information Sheet (CEIS):
- All new casual employees must be provided with the CEIS, which can be found here.
- All businesses with 15 or more employees, the CEIS must be provided at both 6-month and 12-months from the employee’s start date, and then every 12 months there after.
- All business with fewer than 15 employees are required to provide the CEIS at the beginning of employment and again at 12 months. No further updates are required after that.
**These reminders can be automated at the start of employment to ensure your employer obligations are met.
Casual Conversion:
- New pathways are being introduced for casual employees to convert to full-time or part-time employment. More information on these pathways can be found here.
Sham Contracting:
There are new protections against sham contracting for employees engaged as casuals. It is now illegal for an employer to:
- Knowingly say something false to convince a current or former full-time or part-time employee to enter into a contract for casual employment to do the same work (or mostly the same work), or
- Dismiss or threaten to dismiss an employee to engage them as a casual employee to do the same work (or mostly the same work).
If an employment contract is found to be a ‘sham contract,’ penalties may include:
- Up to $93,900 for individuals.
- Up to $469,500 for businesses.
For more details on the Closing the Loopholes casual changes, please click here.
If you need professional advice regarding the employment terms and conditions of your business, please get in touch with Aintree Group. We have specialists who can assist you.
This is general advice only and has not been prepared with your situation and needs in mind. For individual and personalised advice, we highly recommend that you seek out proper professional advice from your advisers.
