Questions & Answers - Casual employees

Question:

The norm has been that if a casual works a systematic roster for more than 12 months and has an ongoing expectation of work, then they are legally treated as a permanent employee. Therefore after 12 months, they will effectively be entitled to the same provisions as permanent employees in a given business i.e casual truck driver working for a furniture removal coy. Is there any change to this principle under the Fair Work legislation?

Answer:

Please note that employees do not usually automatically become permanent employees after 12 months. Rather, under most awards, an employee actually needs to make this election.

Under the Fair Work Act, an employee who has been engaged for 6 months on an ongoing and systematic basis as a casual employee is now able to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

Casual employees who are engaged on a regular and systematic basis will be entitled to parental leave after a period of 12 months and will also (at any time) have access to unpaid carer's leave, compassionate leave and community service leave. True casual employees do not have an entitlement to annual leave or paid personal and carer's leave. These provisions come into operation on 1 January 2010.

There is a table of casual employee entitlements available here .