Causal employees defined
The term ‘Casual employee’ isn’t actually defined anywhere in NZ employment legislation. The term though is usually used to refer to an arrangement where the employee has no guaranteed hours of work, no regular pattern of work, and no ongoing expectation of employment. The employer doesn’t have to offer work to the employee, and the employee has no obligation to accept work if it’s offered.
The employee works as and when it suits both them and the employer. This may happen because it’s hard for the employer to predict when the work needs to be done, or when the work needs to be done quickly. Each time the employee accepts an offer of work it is treated as a new period of employment.
i.e., you are asked to work on Monday from 8-5, when that shift is complete that’s the end of that contractual arrangement, if you are asked to work the next from 8-5 if you agree that’s effectively a separate contract for that day
If you are employed to do casual work, the arrangement must be made clear in your employment agreement.
Employment rights and responsibilities also apply to casual employees, but the way in which annual holidays, sick and bereavement leave are applied can vary for these employees.
Casual employees have largely the same rights and responsibilities as permanent employees with a few exceptions.
Can a causal employee be dismissed
Each time a casual employee accepts the offer to work it’s considered a new period of employment. If an employer decides to stop offering work, this doesn’t count as a dismissal because the employer has no responsibility to provide work. However, if an employer sends an employee home in the middle of a shift or goes back on an agreement to provide work for a shift then this could mean that they were dismissed.
Casual v Part time
It’s important not to confuse part-time employees with casual employees. Some employees who are described as ‘casual’ are in fact part-time employees with a clear work pattern. It’s also possible for an employee to start out as casual but become a part-time permanent employee.
As an example, you begin with an employer and your employment agreement describes you as a “casual” employee. Initially, you only work the odd shift here and there, however, for the next six months you begin to regularly work from 9 am to 3pm on weekdays. This may have happened by request or simply appeared on the roster, and you just accepted in and worked. At this point your employment status changed to one of a permanent part-time employee. If you were then suddenly without warning, told not to come into work anymore this would possibly be an unjustified dismissal as the employer failed to follow the correct process when dismissing a permanent part-time employee.
Holiday and leave
Because casual employees don’t have set hours, it may be not practical for them to take annual holidays. The employee and employer can agree that an extra 8% will be paid on top of their wages or salary instead of taking annual holidays.
Casual employees are also entitled to sick leave and bereavement leave after 6 months of starting work if during that time they have worked:
- an average of at least 10 hours a week, and
- at least one hour a week or 40 hours a month.
Author: Ronald Jones