Casual Conversion Rights to be Included in Awards

In July 2017, the Fair Work Commission determined to introduce a model casual conversion clause into 85 modern awards and expressed a provisional view about its form. The Commission subsequently proposed several amendments to the model clause and recently published the final model clause that will take effect from 1 October 2018.

The model clause

The model clause provides that a regular casual employee can request, in writing, that their employment be converted to full-time or part-time employment. An employer must respond to a request, in writing, within 21 days.

A regular casual employee is a casual employee who in the previous 12 months worked a pattern of hours on an ongoing basis which, without significant adjustment, the employee could continue to perform as a full-time or part-time employee under the relevant award.

An employer can refuse a request, but only on reasonable grounds and following consultation with the employee. Reasonable grounds include:

• it would require significant adjustment to the employee’s hours of work to be engaged full-time or part-time under the relevant award;
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that the employee’s position will cease to exist within the next 12 months;
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that the hours of work which the employee is required to perform will be significantly reduced in the next 12 months; or
• it is known or reasonably foreseeable that there will be a significant change in the days or times at which the employee’s hours of work are required to be performed in the next 12 months that cannot be accommodated within the days or hours during which the employee is available to work.

Employers are required to provide casual employees, whether regular casual employees or not, with a copy of the casual conversation clause within the first 12 months of the employee’s first engagement to work for the employer.

Please click the link below to view the full decision:

4 yearly review of modern awards – Part-time employment and Casual employment [2018] FWCFB 4695 (9 August 2018)