Casual Employment Contract

What is a Casual Employment Contract?

A Casual Employment Contract is a contract used to document your employment arrangement with a casual employee.

It covers all of the essential terms of employment, including start date, position and duties, hours of work, and pay rate.

Who is this Casual Employment Contract template for?

• Business looking to employ casual staff
• Suitable for any industry
• All Australian states and territories

What is a casual employee?

A casual employee does not have any set hours or guarantee of ongoing work.

A person is a casual employee if they accept a job offer from an employer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern of work.

The employee’s roster can change each week, and they do not receive the same entitlements as part-time or full-time employees, such as sick leave or annual leave. As a casual employee, employment can end without notice unless notice is required by a registered agreement, award or employment contract.

No Firm Advance Commitment

To work out if an employer makes no firm advance commitment when offering a casual job, only 4 factors are considered by Fair Work:

• the employer can choose to offer work, and it’s the casual employee’s choice whether to work or not
• the casual will be offered work when the employer needs them to work
• the employment is described as casual
• the casual will be paid a casual loading or a specific pay rate for casual employees.

A regular pattern of work doesn’t automatically mean an employee is permanent (full-time or part-time).

What does our Casual Employment Contract include?

Our Casual Employment Contract template protects you by covering:

• Position – details of the position, including start date, location, manager and duties
• Probation – optional clause, allows you to have a trial period to assess performance and suitability for the position
• Hours of work – no guarantee of ongoing work, details of how shifts will be determined etc
• Breaks – entitlement to paid or unpaid rest breaks and meal breaks, depending on the length of the shift
• Remuneration – hourly rate, superannuation, casual loading
• Leave – statutory entitlements to unpaid leave
• Your Obligations – employee obligations to the business, including duties, conduct and standards
• Termination – how either party can terminate the employment agreement
• Confidential Information – to protect your confidential information
• Intellectual Property – to protect your intellectual property
• Personal Information – consent to collect personal information for payroll and HR purposes
• Surveillance – consent to monitoring use of IT systems etc
• Restraint – to prevent an employee from interfering or disrupting the relationship with customers, suppliers, employees and contractors

What’s the difference between casual and part-time?

The main difference between casual and part-time is that a part-time employee has an expectation of ongoing work.

By contrast, a casual has no guaranteed hours of work or expectation of ongoing work in the future. Casual employees provide businesses with a great deal of flexibility as casuals can be hired as needed. Casual employees are not entitled to the same benefits as part-time employees. They do not receive entitlements such as annual leave, sick leave, notice upon termination and redundancy pay.

Casual employees are paid a higher hourly pay rate than equivalent full-time or part-time employees. This is called a ‘casual loading’ and is paid because they don’t get benefits such as sick or annual leave.

What are long term casual employees?

Some casual employees work regular hours or the same days each week for an extended period and become ‘long term casuals’.

Long term casuals stay as casual employees unless they formally change to full-time or part-time employment.  They don’t automatically become permanent employees, even if they are called ‘permanent casual’. They get their casual entitlements regardless of how regularly they work or how long they work for.

After 12 months of regular employment, and if it’s likely the regular employment will continue, a casual employee can:

request flexible working arrangements
take parental leave.

They don’t get paid leave or notice of termination, even if they work regularly for a long time.

Becoming a permanent employee (casual conversion)

A casual employee has the right to change to full-time or part-time employment in certain circumstances. This is known as casual conversion.

Casual employees who have worked for their employer for 12 months need to be offered the option to convert to full-time or part-time (permanent) employment by their employer. Certain eligibility requirements need to be met for this to occur. If they have been employed for 12 months, worked a regular pattern of hours for 6 months and could continue working their regular hours as a permanent employee without significant changes, then the employer must offer them casual conversion in writing (they don’t have to accept).

A small business employer (fewer than 15 employees) does NOT have to offer casual conversion to employees. However, an eligible casual employee working for a small business employer can request to convert to permanent employment at any time on or after their 12-month anniversary.

To read the full details about rules and eligibility for casual conversion, visit Fair Work.

Do I need a Casual Employment Contract?

Yes, absolutely! A Casual Employment Contract protects both you and your employees.

You should always have a contract signed before a new employee starts working for you.

An employment contract will help to set the ground rules in black and white so everyone is clear on their obligations from the start. You need a proper written contract to enforce your rights and make sure your business is legally protected in case something goes wrong.

Employer Obligations

We recommend that you consult the Fair Work website to check any Awards and agreements which may apply before you use this template.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to pay at least the minimum wage and entitlements to your employees under the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement.

You must provide all new employees with a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement by law.

You must also provide all new casual employees with a copy of the Casual Employment Information Statement by law.

Is my employee covered by an Award?

Awards apply to employers and employees depending on the industry they work in and the type of job worked. Every award has information about who it covers in the coverage clause (usually clause 4) and the job classifications (usually in the pay clause or a schedule).

There are more than 100 industry or occupation awards that cover most people who work in Australia. An employer can be covered by more than one award depending on the jobs the employees do.

You can use the Find My Award tool to check for award coverage on the Fair Work website. In some cases there may not be an award that covers your industry/job role (this is known as “award-free”).

If you are unsure about the status of an employee, you should seek legal advice.