Tips & Tricks

Five common compliance traps when hiring and engaging Christmas Casuals

It's two weeks into October and many businesses are gearing up for their busiest trade period of the year by ramping up their employee headcount. For the most part, businesses will be looking to hire seasonal or Christmas casuals to cope with the chaos and demand that Q4 brings. 

Whether you’ve already completed your seasonal intake or if you’re just getting started, we’re shedding light on the 5 most common compliance traps for businesses to look out for when hiring and engaging seasonal casuals.

Trap 1: Not formalising Casual engagements

It’s easy to neglect the paper trail, especially when you ramp up hiring ahead of the holidays. You might be thinking that a Christmas casual doesn’t need all of the formalities that other employees receive since they’re only being engaged to help the business get through the peak period. Wrong - ensuring you provide the right documentation and perform the necessary checks is crucial to comply with Fair Work obligations and state based regulations.  

Even though you may be engaging them only for the holidays, they are no different to any other casual employee. Therefore, formalising their engagement as you would a casual hired any other time of the year is crucial, including: 

  • Vevo checks - does the employee have the right-to-work and are they limited in the hours they can work? 
  • Qualifications check - does the employee hold the necessary qualifications to work in the role you’re hiring for (e.g. if they are going to be serving liquor, do they have a valid RSA or other licence to do so?)
  • Employment contract - have you issued the correct, up-to-date employment contract? Ensure there is no mention of an advanced firm commitment to work or regular hours if they’re being hired exclusively as a Christmas casual
  • Issuing Fair Work mandated documentation - do you have a means to provide casual hires with the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employee Information Statement as required? 

Trap 2: Assuming Casual employees have no entitlements

While casual employees do not receive the same benefits/ entitlements as full time or part time employees (e.g. paid leave entitlements), it's important not to get caught up in the idea that casuals have no entitlements at all. 

It's a common misconception that the casual loading is paid to casuals in lieu of any and all entitlements. While this may be true for paid leave entitlements such as annual leave and paid personal/carers leave, casuals are still entitled to the following under the National Employment Standards:

  • 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion 
  • 2 days of unpaid compassionate leave per occasion 
  • 10 days of paid daily domestic violence leave per year 
  • Unpaid community service leave 

Another point to remember is that most awards will provide additional entitlements for casual employees, specifically around penalty rates and overtime. Just because they are a casual employee does not mean they can work any and all hours you need them to without any penalty. 

For the festive season, this could include late night penalties for extended trade, or ensuring there’s a large enough break between ending one shift and starting the next.

Trap 3: Subjecting all employees to the same award provisions

Casual penalties will vary depending on your award, it is also important to remember that the penalties that apply to a casual employee may differ from those that apply to permanent employees. Be sure to check your award for any casual specific penalties that may apply. We’ve included some of the key points to keep front of mind when engaging and rostering your casuals to work.

Check the applicable penalties under your award

Casual employees will often be engaged to fill in the gaps of your permanent employees, whether that is to cover time off or provide additional coverage during busy periods. It is not uncommon for casual employees to wind up working unconventional hours, weekends and public holidays. It’s important to be across the different penalties that may be applicable so you can roster accordingly. 

Review the relevant minimum engagement periods under your award

Another challenge businesses face if they are expanding their workforce with casual employees coming from a high permanency employee count, is navigating minimum engagement periods. Different minimum engagements can apply depending on the day, time or whether the employee is working overtime. Be sure to check your award to ensure that you are adequately rostering your casual employees per their minimum shift requirements.

How does Casual Loading apply under your award

Casual employees are entitled to casual loading in lieu of some of the entitlements permanent employees receive. The application of casual loading can vary depending on the award, it’s important to review this ahead of time to ensure that you’re across how the loading applies as some employees may have questions about the loading under certain circumstances. 

Trap 4: Incorrectly engaging junior staff

Part of your Q4 planning might include coming up with a strategy to increase headcount while keeping within labour budgets. Many businesses will look to hire junior casuals as a cost effective way to increase coverage within their business. There is an additional compliance piece that goes hand-in-hand with hiring junior workers. While it may seem more cost effective from the get-go, the penalties for breaching state regulations or award provisions may end up costing you more in the long run.

Keep your state and national restrictions in mind, including: 

  • State regulations that may detail additional restrictions for junior workers (e.g. juniors may only be able to work a certain number of hours before they must have a meal break).

  • Some awards provide different overtime conditions for juniors.

  • Some juniors won’t be permitted to work before or after certain times of the day - this is important to consider if you’re hiring for late night work or extended trades.

  • Consider the work the employee will be doing - some awards indicate that juniors are to be paid at adult rates when engaged in certain tasks (e.g. serving liquor).

Trap 5: Putting out non-compliant job ads

This year the Fair Work Ombudsman has cracked down on dodgy job advertisements, hitting businesses with more than $89,000 in infringement notices. 

You might think there’s no basis of non-compliance as it’s merely a job ad and not yet part of an agreement. However, including incorrect wage rates in the advertisement leaves you at risk of non-compliance. 

Employers have been urged to advertise roles with legal minimum wages. If you’re hiring specifically for a junior position, it's important to make this clear in the job advertisement. If you’re unsure of the correct rate of pay, look into your industry award and align the rate with the duties the successful applicant will be expected to perform.

Christal Kandros

Christal joined Tanda as an Industrial Relations Technology Consultant with previous experience in employment relations and advisory. She has a particular interest in the role technology has in navigating the complex IR landscape in Australia.

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