The laws about changing from casual to permanent status are changing. For more information, see our Changes to casual employment laws fact sheet.
In some situations, a casual employee has the right to become a full-time or part-time employee. We may be able to help if the employer and casual employee disagree on the change.
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The National Employment Standards (NES) give a casual employee the right to become a full-time or part-time employee in some circumstances.
If a casual employee wants to change their employment status to permanent, they won’t always be able to. For example, when the employer has reasonable grounds to decline the status change.
If an employer and employee have a dispute about casual status change and it can’t be resolved at the workplace level, we may be able to help.
A casual employee who wishes to remain a casual employee can also choose to remain casual and not use this process.
For more information about the rules and processes relating to changing from casual to permanent status, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 or visit Becoming a permanent employee on their website.
Every modern award and enterprise agreement has a dispute resolution clause. The clause includes a step by step process for dealing with disputes about the terms of the award or agreement and in relation to the NES.
If you have a dispute with your employer about changing your casual status, read the dispute resolution clause in your award or agreement and follow the steps. Try to resolve the dispute at the workplace level first.
If you can’t resolve the dispute that way, and if the dispute resolution clause says you can refer disputes to the Fair Work Commission, you can ask us for help to resolve the dispute.
The Fair Work Ombudsman can help you find out. Call them on 13 13 94 or visit their website at www.fairwork.gov.au.
Find your award on the Fair Work Ombudsman's website or check our list of modern awards. You can download a copy of your agreement by using our agreement search.
An employee who is covered by the national workplace relations system but who doesn’t have an award or an enterprise agreement may also be able to ask us to help with the dispute.
If you have an employment contract or other written agreement with your employer that has a process for dealing with casual status disputes, you need to follow that process.
Otherwise, if you are unable to resolve the dispute at the workplace level, you can refer the dispute to us.
Once we receive an application, we can deal with the dispute including by:
Use Form F10A – Application for the Commission to deal with a dispute about casual conversion
An employer must not reduce or vary an employee’s hours of work, or terminate their employment, to avoid changing the employee's status to part-time or full-time employment.
An employer must not take adverse action against an employee who has exercised their rights relating to changing employment status.
Adverse action against an employee includes:
Find out more about these general protections laws.