27 September 2021 is just about here and that is when the new rules on casual engagement and conversion come fully into effect.

The Federal Government made amendments to the Fair Work Act back in March. The purpose of the amendments was to provide greater surety about what casual employment is, what entitlements casual employees have and when a casual employee can be offered or apply for conversion to full-time or part-time employment. See our post on 12 May on the legislative changes: https://ridgelinehr.com.au/new-standards-on-casual-employment/

Since then, the Fair Work Commission has been reviewing award provisions relevant to casual employment and casual conversion to align them with the revised provisions of the Fair Work Act.

The changes to Award provisions that it has decided on will also take effect from 27 September 2021. In most cases, the FWC has simply decided to scrap the existing Award provisions for clauses that really just reflect or refer to the new Fair Work Act provisions.

There are some exceptions so you need to check the particular Awards that cover your operations and employees.

Key points in terms of your obligations and exposures as an employer are:

• You must provide all current and future casual employees with a Casual Employment Information Statement which you can access at https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/national-employment- standards/casual-employment-information-statement
• If you have 15 or more employees and you have a casual employee who has been on with you for 12 months and on a consistent work pattern for the last 6 months, you are required to assess them for conversion to ongoing employment by 27 September 2021 or, in future, within 21 days of the employee’s 12 month anniversary of commencing employment.
• Regardless of how many employees you have, eligible casual employees can request conversion to ongoing employment, you have to respond to that request in writing within 21 days and, if the employee is dissatisfied with your response (eg you refuse the request), the employee can take the matter to the Fair Work Commission for determination.
• What is really critical is that there is no firm commitment to an ongoing pattern of work in your contract of employment and other terms of the contract are consistent with the requirements and definition of casual employment now prescribed in the Fair Work Act.

What should you be doing:

1. Assess the status of your casual employees re potential for conversion.
2. Get your employment contracts professionally reviewed plus things like any position descriptions or job ads you use to ensure that they don’t have compromising content.

If you need a hand with that, give us a call on 0421 592 541 or email us at enquiries@ridgelinehr.com.au.

If you haven’t the benefit of professional advice on your workplace relations compliance situation or you just want to make sure, you might want to take advantage of our Lockdown Special Offer on a Fair Work Compliance Assessment. Pay just $600 plus GST in lieu of the regular price of $750 plus GST. Check it out.