A casual employee typically is employed when casual work needs to be completed. This could be by the hour, day or week depending on the project. Casual employees do not get the same entitlements as do permanent staff but they do receive “casual loading” which compensates the employee for not having annual leave, sick leave or job security.
For the employer there are a number of advantages of having casual staff. Casual staff allow an organisation or business to be flexible. It provides the opportunity for a business to scale their teams to adjust to the demand and fluctuations of the goods or service being provided. In addition to this casual employment reduces administrative costs involved in hiring permanent staff as there is reduced paper work and also accruing leave.
"With growth in spending of Government infrastructure, foreign investment and an overall increase in business actives, the increase in demand for both permanent and temporary staff is at a high".
Casual employment defines as employment that is on demand and employment that is for short irregular periods which can be terminated at any particular time. Today, however, casual employment can take on many forms and does not necessarily fit into what the tradition term of casual employment means. Casual workers now are more commonly hired on a casual basis but with full time hours.
Casual employees are only paid for the time they have worked and will receive a loading on top of their wages substitute their forfeited entitlements such as annual leave, severance pay and sick leave. Casual loading is usually 25% but in some cases can be higher depending on if it is work on the weekends or work outside of normal business hours.
In some exceptional cases if a casual employee is working more regular hours, the employer may need to consider hiring them full-time. Some factors and questions to consider before employing a staff to full-time:
- Size, requirements and financial position of the workplace or enterprise
- Is the nature of work performed beneficial as a full time role
- The qualifications, skillset and training of the employee
- The scalability of work due to external factors
- Individual employee personal circumstance
After considering the request and full time conversion is transitioning, the employee loses the casual loading previously paid but gains all the entitlements of permanent employment. There are a number of online marketplaces to search for casual work. Visit Workfast or Freelancer to get an idea of how these new platforms work!