The Federal Government recently released a bill in parliament to provide casual employees the right to elect to become permanent employees after 12 months “regular and systematic” work. The Fair Work Amendment (Right to Request Casual Conversion) Bill 2019 was in response to a regulatory amendment to eliminate the double dipping of entitlements. This will provide all casual workers the flexibility of choice as they can also remain a casual employee if they prefer.
Yesterday, the Senate of Education and Employment Legislation Committee handed down its report. Their report focuses on the bill’s key issues including: what defines a casual employee and their eligibility, the treatment of pre-conversion service such as calculation of NES entitlements, the interaction of the bill with enterprise agreements and the requirement for employers to provide all employees with updated copies of the Fair Work Information Statement.
The Committee recommended that the Senate pass the bill without amendment while the Labor Party and Greens Senators both issued separate dissenting reports. The Labor Party contends that the bill should not be passed in its current form and the Greens recommended that the bill should not be passed preferring the Fair Work Amendment (Tackling Job Insecurity) Bill 2018 that they re-introduced in March last year.
This bill will define the future of casual employment in Australia and has significant implications for the hospitality industry (one of the greatest employers of casual labour in the country). Given the limited number of sitting days before the election, it is foreseeable that the Bill might lapse when the House is dissolved.
