What Next for Casual Work? Professor Andrew Stewart webinar recording
Casual employment has dominated Australia’s labour market recovery from COVID-19. And the right of employers to hire staff on a casual basis in almost any role they choose – including jobs that on their face appear have permanent characteristics – seems to have been cemented by recent amendments to the Fair Work Act, and by the High Court’s recent ruling in the WorkPac v. Rossato case.
What do these new developments mean for the further spread of casual and precarious work? What are the other implications of the High Court ruling for future employer strategies? And what options remain for limiting the spread of casual and insecure work? To examine these matters and their implications, we were recently joined by renowned labour law expert Professor Andrew Stewart from the University of Adelaide.
Andrew’s highly informative presentation can be viewed below:
You might also like
Want to lift workers’ productivity? Let’s start with their bosses
Business representatives sit down today with government and others to talk about productivity. Who, according to those business representatives, will need to change the way they do things?
“Permanent Casuals,” and Other Oxymorons
Recent legal decisions are starting to challenge the right of employers to deploy workers in “casual” positions on an essentially permanent basis. For example, the Federal Court recently ruled that a labour-hire mine driver who worked regular shifts for years was still entitled to annual leave, even though he was supposedly hired as a “casual.” This decision has alarmed business lobbyists who reject any limit on their ability to deploy casual labour, while avoiding traditional entitlements (like sick pay, annual leave, severance rights, and more). For them, a “casual worker” is anyone who they deem to be casual; but that open door obviously violates the intent of Australia’s rules regarding casual loading.
We need more than a definition change to fix Australia’s culture of permanent ‘casual’ work
The surprising thing about the Albanese government’s announced reforms to “casual” employment is not that they’re happening.