As the business operators across the country drown in EOFY paperwork there is one element to employing casual staff that is often overlooked, with disastrous consequences…every business owner should be asking their payroll team if they have recorded and retained the total hours worked by each casual employee for the year 2021-2022 now.
Casual recap
A casual employee is one that is engaged as a casual and who has no firm advance commitment to ongoing employment. A casual employee has the right to accept or reject shifts, to work at other businesses and to terminate their employment with one hour notice. On the flip side, a casual employee is also not entitled to paid leave, notice of termination or redundancy.
As a result, a casual employee receives a higher rate of pay than a permanent employee, either by a loading or a specific casual rate.
The exception…
There is however one type of leave that all casual employees are entitled to receive payment for and that is Long Service Leave.
The Long Service Leave provisions and requirements differ from State to State but they all have this in common;
ALL CASUAL STAFF ARE ENTITLED TO PAID LONG SERVICE LEAVE
Records
There are differing calculations for each State on how to determine what a “week” is for a casual employee, but what they all have in common is the requirement for the business to have detailed and accurate records of how many hours a casual employee worked in each year that they were employed.
Some states require only the total worked in the last 12 months or the last three or five years, but many require these individual totals to be compared to the total worked over the whole period of employment, with the higher average “week” being the one that is used.
What to do now
As the financial year is wrapping up business operators should ensure that each casual staff members total hours for 2021-2022 is recorded and retained to be used in any future Long Service Leave calculation.
“This is a simple, important and often overlooked element of employment record keeping”, explains ACAPMA’s Elisha Radwanowski.
“We are also seeing more and more businesses move to digital time clocks or bundy systems, which can be fabulous, but it is important for businesses to ensure they are extracting the information required and keeping it in a format that they can access in the future”, adds Elisha.
“Providers change, formats require special programs, even passwords get lost over time. These are common situations, but none are a reasonable excuse for failing to keep the employment records required, so it is vital that whatever digital timesheet system the business uses that they extract the data and retain it in a useable format and retain it as an employment record for seven years after it no longer has effect”, continued Elisha.
“In the case of casual hours, because long service leave is an entitlement that is available from between seven to 10 years of service (depending on the State), that means the hours information is an employment record that needs to be kept for seven years after the employee has left the business”, concludes Elisha.
More on Long Service Leave
ACAPMA will be releasing the 2022-2023 Long Service Leave Guide and exploring the practical operation of Long Service Leave, including recent changes, at the ACAPMA Employment Masterclass Series Workshop on Long Service Leave on 26 August, 2022. Held over Zoom this workshop runs from 13:00-15:00 (Syd Time) and is free to ACAPMA Members – advance registration is open now at; https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hanC0eqMS36He7vxQRYEiQ.
Here to help
HR Highlights are things to consider, implement and watch out for in your business. They are provided as general information for you to consider and do not constitute advice. You should seek further advice on your situation by contacting your legal advisor. ACAPMA members can access resources and receive advice, guidance and support from the ACAPMA employment professionals via employment@acapma.com.au, it is free for members. ACAPMA Membership delivers this and more benefits, see; https://acapma.com.au/membership/ for more information.
Elisha Radwanowski BCom (HRM&IR)
ACAPMA
Source: https://acapmag.com.au/2022/07/have-you-recorded-your-casuals-hours-for-2021-2022/.
