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Regular casual employee
Practical Law ANZ Glossary w-030-5257 (Approx. 4 pages)
Glossary
Regular casual employee
A national system employee of a national system employer who, at a particular time:
- Is a casual employee.
- Has been employed by the national system employer on a regular and systematic basis. For more information about this requirement, see Practice note, Regular and systematic casual employment.
Whether an employee is a regular casual employee is relevant to various provisions under the FW Act, including for the purposes of:
- The meaning of small business employer (section 23, FW Act; for more guidance, see Practice note: overview, Unfair dismissal considerations for small business employers).
- Requests for flexible working arrangements (Division 4, Part 2-2, FW Act; for more guidance, see Practice note, Requests for flexible working arrangements: Casual employment).
- Unpaid parental leave and related entitlements (Division 5, Part 2-2, FW Act). This also includes a regular casual employee who was not a national system employee (section 744, FW Act). Employee has its ordinary meaning (section 742, FW Act). For more guidance, see Practice note, Unpaid parental leave: Extension to non-national system employees and employers and Casual employees.
- Meeting the minimum employment period required to access relief in the unfair dismissal jurisdiction (section 384, FW Act; for more guidance, see Practice note, Minimum employment period).
The definition of "regular casual employee" was introduced into section 12 of the FW Act by the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Act 2021 (Cth) (FW Economic Recovery Act), which commenced operation on 27 March 2021. Regular casual employee replaces previous references to long term casual employee, as well as references to casual employment on a regular and systematic basis, used in substantive provisions in the FW Act.
Having regard to the application and provisions that accompanied the FW Economic Recovery Act amendments (see Part 10, Schedule 1 to the FW Act), a reference to regular casual employee in the following provisions of the FW Act applies to periods of employment before, on or after commencement of this statutory definition (being 27 March 2021):
- Section 23 (Meaning of small business employer).
- Section 65 (Requests for flexible working arrangements).
- Section 67 (General rule - employee must have completed at least 12 months of service) (in respect of parental leave).
- Section 384 (Period of employment).
(Clause 46(10), Division 2, Part 10 of Schedule 1, FW Act.)
Use of the term "regular casual employee" in these provisions does not prevent an employee's service prior to the commencement of this statutory definition from being counted for the purpose of those provisions (Explanatory Memorandum to the FW Economic Recovery Act at [504]).
For guidance on the statutory definition of regular casual employee, see Practice note, Statutory definition of casual employee: Regular casual employee.