What is a casual employee?

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

For example, if an employee is employed as casual, their roster changes each week to suit their employer’s needs, and they can refuse or swap shifts, that could mean they are casual.

Specifically, under the Fair Work Act, a person is a casual employee if:

• they are offered a job
• the offer does not include a firm advance commitment that the work will continue indefinitely with an agreed pattern of work
• they accept the offer knowing that there is no firm advance commitment and become an employee.

No firm advance commitment

There are only 4 factors that determine whether an employer’s offer doesn’t include a firm advance commitment. They are:

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