Perth Human Resource Consultants: Advice on Casual Workers

Casual Workers: your Perth Human Resource Consulting Vitil, tells you what you really need to know as an Employer

As a Perth business owner, you may think it easier and more economical to employ your resources on casual contracts. Casuals can provide a flexible workforce so that your human capital can flex and contract with market conditions. As a result many business owners feel they can better manage their company's performance and cashflow, with casual employees.

However it may not always be appropriate especially if the casual is receiving consistent, regular hours of work.

A 'true casual' employment is characterised by informality, uncertainty and irregularity of work.

According to Fair Work, the three employment statuses are:

• Full time
• Part time
• Casual

Full-time employees work an average of 38 hours per week and usually have ongoing employment. Full-time employees are entitled to all of the conditions of the National Employment Standards including:

• maximum number of hours of work per week
• paid annual and personal (sick) leave
• public holidays
• notice period

Other conditions will come from any Award or Agreement that applies

Part-time employees work an average of less than 38 hours per week. They're usually hired on an ongoing basis and work the same set of hours. Part-time employees are entitled to the same conditions as full-time employees, but on a 'pro rata' basis – which means that it's based on the number of hours they work.

Casual employees are paid based on the number of hours they work. They are not guaranteed hours of work per week. Casual employees are employed by the hour or by the day. They do not get paid sick leave or annual leave. To make up for this they receive extra pay called casual loading.

What is the potential cost of assigning an incorrect employment status?

It is important that Perth employers assess the true nature of an employee's role, before appointing a resource and deeming them casual. Get this wrong and as an employer, you could be up for some substantial costs. Gaining advice from Vitil, the Human Resource professionals, can help you identify the right status of people in your team.

If a casual employee has set days of work and set hours over a period of time with the expectation of regular hours, the employee may be deemed as part time. If that is the case, the employee would be entitled to improved terms and conditions including access to redundancy provisions, personal leave and annual leave, and they could also have access to the unfair dismissal jurisdiction and parental leave legislation, from which true casuals are excluded.

If a Casual resource is deemed to be a permanent ongoing employee, Perth employers may be required to back pay any unpaid annual leave, and may be imposed a penalty or fine for failing to provide leave entitlements.

No one characteristic makes an employee a casual and a case by case assessment is required to determine the true legal relationship.

Vitil Outsourced HR Consulting Services: Vitil are consulting experts in people management services. Vitil consulting offers problem solving support to small to medium businesses in Perth. We're flexible, reliable and here to help you and your human resources to ensure you manage your team and their performance.

Vitil's Perth business consulting services is built on flexibility with performance our key focus. We work with your team of people in your business to solve one-off HR problems or work ongoing with your team for a few hours a week, to assist in your HR consulting management. By outsourcing HR consulting to an expert our experienced consulting professionals can objectively assess your environment, your human capital, your desired culture and provide solutions to enhance your team's performance.

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