Canberra Business Chamber CEO Greg Harford urges Canberra businesses to familiarise themselves with the new industrial relations laws regarding casual employees. Photo: Canberra Business Chamber.
With recent changes to Australia’s industrial relations laws, the definition and management of casual employment are evolving, and the risks for businesses that fail to adapt are increasing.
From new rules around conversion to permanent roles to clearer pathways for disputes, understanding these updates isn’t just good practice.
“It’s essential that businesses get across these changes,” Canberra Business Chamber (CBC) CEO Greg Harford says. “Businesses must ensure they comply with the law or could find themselves in trouble with the Fair Work Commission. More importantly, we all want to ensure our valued employees are getting everything they’re entitled to.”
To help Canberra businesses navigate the changes, the Canberra Business Chamber is hosting a free “fireside chat” style webinar for members, bringing together expert panellists to offer practical insights and answer the questions many employers are now asking.
Under the new laws, the definition of “casual employment” now looks beyond a person’s contract and considers the substance of their working relationship over time. If certain factors begin to resemble those of permanent employment, the worker may no longer legally qualify as casual.
These changes closed a legal loophole that allowed employers to maintain casual arrangements long-term even when the job was effectively permanent. Now, misclassification can expose businesses to backpay claims for entitlements like annual leave, sick leave and redundancy — so
Furthermore, the changes aim to reduce “permanent casual” arrangements, where people remain casual for years despite working like permanent staff, by revising the criteria for when a person can initiate a request to convert from casual to full-time employment.
There have also been important updates to dispute resolution pathways.
Fireside Chat: All you need to know about employing casuals will distil this otherwise complex set of updates into a digestible format.
Greg will host the event, joined by King & Wood Mallesons partner John Tuck and Strategic HR Consultants’ Miranda McMahon, who will share their insights on how these updates impact businesses and HR practices.
The webinar is billed as “essential for HR professionals, business leaders and compliance officers looking to navigate the evolving employment landscape and ensure best practices heading into 2025”.
“Change is hard and these changes do increase complexity for employers of casual employees. Businesses will need to start thinking about things like how they will handle requests from their employees to move from casual to permanent and put processes in place to ensure that it runs smoothly and compliantly,” Greg says.
“The webinar will help them unpack some of that and put them on the front foot to meet their responsibilities when it comes to providing employees with the correct information.
“Attendees won’t get a dry PowerPoint presentation – it’s a conversation with experts who have invaluable insights to share … Hopefully they will leave the webinar with a positive outlook on the opportunity – to tighten up processes and attract and, importantly, retain staff.”
Fireside Chat: All you need to know about employing casuals takes place on Tuesday, 29 April, from 3 pm to 4 pm. To join the CBC, visit the Canberra Business Chamber and register for the event via Eventbrite.
