Casual employment in Queensland offers both flexibility and unique entitlements for workers, but navigating these rights can sometimes be complex. Whether you're a student seeking part-time work or someone who values the flexibility of casual hours, understanding your entitlements is crucial.
Your rights as a casual employee include:
Casual Loading: As a casual employee, you're entitled to receive a casual loading on top of your hourly rate. This loading compensates for the lack of entitlements such as paid leave and typically amounts to 25% or more of your base rate of pay.
Leave Entitlements: Contrary to popular belief, casual employees do have leave entitlements. This includes carer's leave, compassionate leave, family violence leave, and community service leave. While these leaves are unpaid, they provide essential protections for casual workers when unforeseen circumstances arise.
Superannuation Contributions: Casual workers should also receive superannuation contributions from their employers. If you're over 18, your employer must pay a minimum of 10.5% of your "ordinary time earnings" into your chosen super fund.
Overtime Pay: Casual employees are still entitled to overtime pay. If you work more than 38 hours per week or more than 12 hours per day, you should receive an additional payment for overtime, depending on your Award or Agreement. This ensures that casual workers are fairly compensated for any additional hours worked beyond standard limits.
Public Holiday Pay: When working on a public holiday, casual employees are usually entitled to 250% of their base rate for hours worked. This substantial increase in pay recognizes the sacrifice of working on public holidays and provides fair compensation for casual workers.
Shift Flexibility: As a casual employee, you have the right to refuse, swap, or change shifts. This flexibility allows you to balance work with other commitments and ensures a healthy work-life balance.
Minimum Shift Hours: Whether your employer has to provide you with a minimum number of hours per shift depends on your Award or enterprise agreement but generally it is between 2-4 hours.
Casual Conversion: If you fit the requirements, you are also entitled to request conversion to permanent employment. An employer cannot fire you just for seeking conversion, that would be an adverse action! To see if you meet the criteria and for the Fair Work Ombudsman's guide to requesting conversion, click here.
If you're not getting these rights, or any provided for in your Award or Agreement, we recommend raising it with your employer. If that doesn't work, seek advice!