Changes to Casual Employment Laws: Deadline 27th September 2021

An employer who has 15 or more employees must make an offer to their casual employee to convert to full-time or part-time permanent employment if the employee:

• has worked for their employer for 12 months, AND

• has worked a regular pattern of hours for at least the last 6 of those months on an ongoing basis, AND

• the employee could continue working those hours as a permanent employee without significant changes.

Unless the employer has reasonable business grounds not to offer the employee permanent employment that are known or reasonably foreseeable at the time. An employer with fewer than 15 employees does not have to offer permanent employment, but their casual employees may become entitled to request casual conversion if certain conditions are met.

By 27 September 2021, employers (other than small business employers) need to assess whether any existing casual employees employed prior to 27 March 2021 are eligible to be offered permanent employment and either:

• 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.

Importantly, even though there is no compulsion for a small business (a business with fewer than 15 employees) to offer to convert casual employees to permanent employment, a casual employee can request to convert to permanent employment at any time on or after their 12-month anniversary.

To respond to an employee’s request to convert to permanent, employers need to confirm in writing within 21 days and tell the employee if they have or haven’t accepted their request. If the employer refuses the request, they must tell the employee their reasons why in their written response.

Employers can’t refuse a request unless they have consulted the employee and have reasonable grounds to refuse the request.