How casual became
predictable
Image: Taylor Wilcox/Unsplash
For decades, employees defined as a casual by their employer weren’t entitled to paid annual leave or sick leave. Their employment contract effectively lasted for one shift, and they could be eased out with almost no notice. An employer who wanted to avoid invoking unfair dismissal laws – which technically only apply to those ‘employed on a regular and systematic basis’ – could simply reduce the casual’s hours, perhaps to zero.
David Peetz Griffith University
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Connect ® Volume 14, no. 1 ® Semester 1, March 2021
