Casual changes to Australian Government’s IR Omnibus Bill

Following contentious public scrutiny and prolonged debate, the Australian Senate yesterday passed a pared-back version of the ambitious Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020 which proposed a raft of changes to be introduced to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act).

The reduced bill as approved by the Senate:

• inserts a statutory definition of ‘casual employee’ into the FW Act for the first time;
• includes a casual conversion entitlement in the National Employment Standards contained in the FW Act; and
• will allow Courts to offset any casual loading paid against any amount being claimed by an employee for permanent employment entitlements in circumstances where a Court finds that the employee has been misclassified as a casual employee.

The bill will now return to the House of Representatives for further consideration in its reduced form.

If passed, the changes will provide much needed clarity to employers and their employees about casual working arrangements and will assist in minimising the risk of employers misclassifying their employees as casual employees.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team who would be more than happy to discuss these proposed changes with you.