The Regular Casual: Still Casual, or Just Paid Like One?

Most servos have one. The casual who has done the same five shifts a week for the last two years. Rostered a month ahead, never knocks back a shift, has a key to the shop. The payslip says casual and pays the 25 per cent loading. Under the rules that came in during August 2024, there is a fair chance that person is not a casual any more, and if they work that out before you do, it is their call, not yours.

Two calls to the help desk

Two questions came through the ServoPro HR help desk this year that show how it plays out.

The first was from a member with a casual on 35 hours a week who had just told him she was pregnant. He wanted to know what he owed her. The second was from a member whose casual asked to keep the loading but be guaranteed the same regular hours every week. He liked the money and the certainty.

Both members thought casual was something they had decided on day one. It is not. The law looks at how the job is actually being done, and that can change without anyone signing anything.

What casual means now

Since 26 August 2024, someone is a casual if there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work and they are paid a casual loading or casual rate. Fair Work looks at the real arrangement, not the label on the contract. The things that count are whether you can choose not to offer shifts and whether that actually happens, whether they can turn shifts down and whether they ever do, whether the work is going to keep coming, whether you have permanent staff doing the same job, and whether they work a regular pattern.

A regular roster on its own does not make someone permanent, and Fair Work says so. A regular roster plus a key, plus two years of never saying no, plus a site that cannot open without them, is a different story. That is the person to look at.

The employee now holds the trigger

The old system, where you had to offer conversion after 12 months, has gone for new employment. Now the casual decides. After six months, or 12 months if you have fewer than 15 employees (most independent sites), a casual who believes they no longer fit the definition can give you written notice that they want to go permanent. Time worked before 26 August 2024 does not count towards the six or 12 months.

Once the notice lands you have 21 days to respond in writing. Before you respond you have to sit down with them and talk through what would change: full time or part time, what hours, from when.

You can say no, but only for three reasons: they still meet the casual definition; there are fair and reasonable operational grounds (substantial changes to how the work is organised, a significant impact on the business, or a change that would put you in breach of the award); or accepting would breach a recruitment process required by law. “I prefer casuals” is not on the list.

If you accept, the change starts from the first full pay period after your response. And you cannot cut their hours, change their pattern or let them go to get around a notice. That is adverse action, and it comes with penalties.

What the loading buys you

The 25 per cent covers what casuals do not get: annual leave, sick leave, notice, redundancy. It does not protect you if someone is found to have been permanent all along. The loading already paid can usually be offset against the leave they claim, which limits the damage, but you are still doing back pay sums and having a conversation with Fair Work you did not plan on.

The member with the pregnant casual on 35 hours is the clearest example. A casual who has worked a regular pattern for 12 months and expects it to continue is already entitled to unpaid parental leave and can ask for flexible hours. Whether she was still a casual at all was the bigger question, and nobody had asked it until the help desk did.

The one piece of paper

Every casual has to be given the Casual Employment Information Statement when they start, and again at 12 months if you are a small business (at six and 12 months, then every 12 months, if you are not). It is a Fair Work document. You download the current version and hand it over or email the link. It explains the rules in the government’s own words, so a casual who has it cannot say they were kept in the dark, and an employer who has not issued it is already on the back foot when anything else goes wrong. If you cannot remember giving it, you have not.

Where to start

Pull up the roster and the payroll for every casual. For anyone on the same pattern for six months or more, ask the honest question: if they handed me the notice tomorrow, could I say no for one of the three reasons? If not, the better move is to offer part time now, on hours you choose and a start date that suits the site, rather than respond to their notice later on their terms. The pay drops by the loading, the leave starts accruing, and you keep someone who was already permanent in every way but the payslip. For the casuals who genuinely are casual, keep it that way in practice: vary the shifts, let them say no, and keep a record that they do.

Where ServoPro fits

The ServoPro HR help desk handles exactly these questions, usually inside a day: whether a particular casual still fits the definition, how to respond to a notice within the 21 days, and how to word a part time offer so it does not turn into a dispute. Members also have our employment contract templates, including casual and part time versions written for service stations. If you have a casual who has been on the same roster since last year, send us the roster and we will tell you where you stand. No cost involved.

As at 19 October 2026. Based on Fair Work Ombudsman guidance on the casual employee definition and the employee choice pathway (Fair Work Act 2009 ss 15A, 66A to 66M, 125A to 125B). General information, not legal advice; check your award and get advice on individual cases.