What’s Changing?

From 1 October 2018 a new standard conversation clause was incorporated in 85 awards, giving select casual workers who work regular hours the right to request full-time or part-time employment if they satisfy set criteria.

“If the casual employment turns out to be long-term in nature, and to be of sufficient regularity … then we consider it to be fair and necessary for the employee to have access to a mechanism by which the casual employment may be converted to an appropriate form of permanent employment,” said the full Fair Work Commission bench when the clause was first announced, as reported by the ABC.

Which businesses will be impacted most from this change?

If your business employs large numbers of casual workers such as in retail, hospitality, manufacturing and agriculture then you should pay particular attention.

How will this impact my business?

Casual employees covered by the 85 modern awards will have the right to request full-time or part-time employment after working as a regular casual for at least 12 months with a given employer. Whilst many modern awards already had casual conversation provisions, this new clause gives an employee the ability to ‘convert’ casual employment to part-time or full-time employment and receive all their entitlements that follow.

Employers can refuse the request in writing on reasonable grounds, including that it would require a significant adjustment to a casual employee’s hours of work or they could foresee their position would no longer exist in the next 12 months.

What should I do?

1. Be aware of how the additional entitlements to part-time and full-time employees might affect your business
2. Maintain casual staff performance management plans and performance manage under-performing employees so you don’t get stuck with anyone you don’t see adding long-term value to your business and
3. Contact one of our friendly consultants at Two Birds Consulting for advice on entitlements, employee management and the likelihood of a looming conversation so we can help early.

Source: Employsure November 2018