Posts: casual employment

A number of amendments were made to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) which commenced on 26 August 2024. A brief summary of the changes are set out here for those who may have missed them.

Workplace Law's Managing Director and Principal, Athena Koelmeyer, explores two key areas that have undergone significant change over the past few years and will undergo yet another change under these amendments – that is, the changes to casual employment and the new definition of employment.

For most employers, casual employment is favoured because of the flexibility it provides – employees are employed as required and have no guarantee of ongoing employment. This flexibility however does not mean that casual employees are not protected from adverse action.

An employee will have access to the unfair dismissal jurisdiction if they have completed a minimum employment period of six months (or 12 months for small business employers). Generally, service as a casual employee will not count towards the period of service needed to satisfy the minimum employment period unless they were a regular casual, and they had a reasonable expectation of continuing employment on a regular and systematic basis.