Casual workers: under proposed new laws, you could have the right to permanent employment

Understanding the story 

1. The context 

2. What are the proposed workplace reforms?  

The context 

Soon after they won the 2019 federal election, the Coalition announced it would host discussions with unions and businesses with an eye to passing new workplace reforms. On Monday, Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter revealed the first section of the proposed reforms. Throughout the week, Porter will unveil four more sections.

What are the proposed workplace reforms? 

There are two big parts to the proposed workplace reforms so far: 

1. Casual workers who work regularly with an employer must be granted permanent employment after a year

2. Workers who were wrongly employed as casuals will lose out on up to $39 billion in potential compensation 

Casual workers who work regularly with an employer must be granted permanent employment after a year 

At the moment, if you work regular shifts with your employer over a long period of time, there’s nothing requiring that employer give you a part-time or full-time position. Part-time or full-time work comes with a lot of protections - employers can’t dismiss you on the spot, and you get annual leave and sick leave. The proposed law would make it a requirement that employers make your position permanent, therefore granting you those stronger rights, if you have worked with that employer for a year, of which at least six months has been regular work. 

Workers who were wrongly employed as casuals will lose out on up to $39 billion in potential compensation 

There’s been a lot of court cases recently about employers who wrongfully classified workers as casuals. Workers have had a lot of success recently in arguing that because they work regular shifts, they should be counted as part-time workers rather than casual workers - and so deserve entitlements like leave. 

The Federal Government and some parts of the business community don’t like these court cases. They argue that workers are ‘double dipping’ - as casuals, they get a higher hourly rate. Then, when they win in court, they get compensated for all the leave they didn’t get. The Federal Government and business thinks they should only get one or the other. So, the proposed new law would stop that from happening.

Under the law, if a worker successfully argues that their employer misclassified them as a casual, any higher hourly rate they received as a casual would be deducted from the overall value of the leave entitlements they missed out on. The Federal Government says this could save businesses up to $39 billion. Unions say it will unjustly leave workers $39 billion out of pocket and will encourage businesses to wrongly classify workers as casuals.