There are 4 categories of employment:- Permanent Full Time, Permanent
Part Time, Casual & Temporary.
Determining which category applies to your
employees can be confusing. Below is an
explanation of each category.
Permanent Full Time
Employees:
A full time employee is employed to work on an
ongoing basis for an average maximum of 38 ordinary hrs/week.
Full time employees are entitled to all of the
conditions of the National Employment Standards(NES) which include:
a Paid annual leave
a Paid personal leave
a Public holidays
a Parental leave
a Long service leave
a Period of notice
if terminating job
Permanent Part Time
Employees:
A part time employee is employed to work a
reasonably predictable number of hours & days during the week that is less
than 38 hrs per week.
Part time employees are entitled to all of the
conditions of the National Awards & NES (these are paid pro rate depending
on the hours worked. Entitlements include –
a Paid annual leave
a Paid personal
leave
a Public holidays
a Parental leave
a Long service leave
a Period of notice
if terminating job
When hiring a part time employee you must come to
an agreement with the employee in writing & this should include:
a Number of hours to
be worked daily
a specific days of the week they will work
a the start &
finish time of each day
a the specific times
& duration of meal breaks or the regular pattern of engagement as agreed by
both parties.
Any
changes to this agreement must be made in writing.
Casual Worker:
A casual employee is someone that doesn’t usually
have regular hours of work & is not guaranteed particular hours & is not
on a regular roster.
They are paid for the hours of work they perform
& receive a casual loading on their rate of pay giving them a higher rate. This loading is to compensate them for not
receiving some of the benefits of fulltime & part time workers and is
usually 25%; You must check the relevant award for the exact rate.
Casual Workers are entitled to the following under
the NES
a 2 days unpaid
carers leave per occasion
a 2 days
compassionate leave per occasion
a Community Service leave (except paid jury service
a Unpaid parental
leave
a 2 days unpaid
adoption leave
a A day off on
public holidays unless asked to work by the employer
a A maximum of 38 hrs
per week, plus reasonable additional hours
If you incorrectly classify a casual
employee – Fairwork can require you to pay the employee annual/personal leave
for the term of their employment & you cannot offset the casual loading
already paid
Temporary Employee:
Temporary employees are engaged for a matter of
days, weeks or months on a fixed term contract of for a particular purpose or
project. Workers engaged to replace
permanent employees who might be on long service leave, maternity leave or
workers compensation would also be considered to be temporary. The key is that the job in not expected to be
ongoing - there is no guarantee of work once the agreed
project/purpose/replacement period is completed.
Award Finder:
A great toll to use for determining what your award
states in regards to the above categories is the Award Finder on the Fairwork
website. This tool allows you to search
for your award by job title, occupation, award code or industry.