Employer Casual Conversion Obligations

by Jun 14, 2022Modern Awards, View All

Workplace investigations are a vital part of maintaining the integrity and fairness of any organisation. When issues arise, it’s important for businesses to act quickly, ensuring that they address concerns in a transparent and lawful manner. Different types of investigations are needed for different situations, each requiring a tailored approach to ensure fair outcomes for all involved. Below are some of the most common types of workplace investigations and when they should be used.

Misconduct Investigations
Misconduct investigations are necessary when an employee breaches company policies or behaves inappropriately. This might include theft, dishonesty, substance abuse in the workplace, or breaches of confidentiality. Misconduct can also cover actions that damage the company’s reputation or relationships with clients. It’s important to act quickly when dealing with misconduct to maintain workplace standards and protect the business from potential legal liabilities.

Harassment and Bullying Investigations
Investigations into harassment and bullying are crucial when employees report or experience inappropriate behaviour. Whether the issue is sexual harassment, racial harassment, or bullying, businesses have a duty to investigate and take action. These investigations must be handled with care, ensuring that both the complainant and the accused are treated fairly, and that the process remains confidential. Addressing such issues promptly not only protects employee wellbeing but also helps to maintain a respectful workplace culture.

Discrimination Investigations
Discrimination investigations come into play when employees feel they’ve been treated unfairly due to attributes such as race, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. These cases can be complex and require careful handling to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws in Australia. A thorough investigation is essential to ensure that all claims are properly examined, protecting the organisation from legal action and fostering an inclusive workplace.

Health and Safety Investigations
When a workplace incident or a near-miss occurs, a health and safety investigation is needed. These investigations help to determine whether existing safety measures were followed and if further action is required to prevent future incidents. Compliance with workplace health and safety laws is essential in Australia, and these investigations ensure that businesses fulfil their obligations to protect their employees.

Workplace Culture Investigations
In some cases, broader concerns about workplace culture may require investigation. This can occur when there are ongoing issues affecting morale, such as repeated complaints about management or widespread dissatisfaction among staff. A culture investigation looks at systemic issues within the workplace and seeks to identify patterns that may be harming the work environment. These investigations provide valuable insights for leadership teams to implement lasting positive change.

How AHR Can Assist with Workplace Investigations
Conducting a workplace investigation requires impartiality, expertise, and a thorough understanding of Australian workplace laws. At Assurance HR (AHR), we specialise in handling workplace investigations with a high degree of professionalism and confidentiality. Whether you’re facing allegations of misconduct, bullying, discrimination, or safety breaches, AHR has the expertise to guide your organisation through the investigation process.

Our team works with you to ensure that every step of the investigation is conducted lawfully and fairly. We help gather evidence, interview witnesses, and provide detailed reports on our findings, making sure you have all the information needed to resolve the issue. By choosing AHR, you can focus on your business while we take care of the complexities involved in workplace investigations, ensuring you remain compliant and maintain a positive work environment. Let AHR be your trusted partner in managing workplace investigations with confidence and care.

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As of September 2021, legislation introduced new casual conversion laws, which requisites all employers to offer eligible employees the opportunity for conversion to permanent employment. Within a society where casual employees often seek consistency within hours it is ever increasing that casual employees are meeting the eligibility criteria for conversion. To remain compliant and to avoid repercussions of penalty and back payment of entitlements with interest, it is critical that employers offer conversion and adjust employment status and documentation to reflect this.

In accordance with the casual conversion legislation employers need to ensure that they have given all existing and new employees a copy of the ‘Casual Conversion Information Statement’. It is required of an employer, by law, to provide a copy of this document to all employees within the first 12 months of employment, and therefore advised that this document be distributed within the initial onboarding process for new employees.

Casual conversion must be offered by an employer with 15 or more employees. It is to be offered to any eligible employee or an eligible employee can make a request of such, enabling a transition from casual to permanent employment status. An employee’s eligibility for conversion requisites:

  • Employed by the employer for 12 months or more;
  • Relatively regular or patterned hours of work for the last 6 months of employment; OR
  • No significant changes to work arrangements to be made in response to conversion.

A casual employee can make more than one request for casual conversion, with the ability to do so every 6 months on the provision of changed circumstance. For example, Sally was refused casual conversion after having applied with 3 months of consistent and patterned work hours, she then continued to work the same patterned hours for another 3 months making her eligible to reapply with an accumulative 6 months of evidenced work hours to justify and increase her eligibility.

An employer must provide a written letter of offer for casual conversion within 21 days of making the appropriate eligibility assessment, or contrastingly send a written letter explaining why an offer of conversion will NOT be made in accordance with reasonable grounds for refusal. Reasonable grounds for refusal are inclusive of employee hours being reduced or ceased within the preceding 12 months, and/or upcoming changes to the days and times of an employee’s current work hours that will see a change to the previously patterned hours or meet the employees prior availability. For more information on reasonable grounds for refusal, see our info guide on casual conversion.

At Assurance HR Management we assist many organisations to review and manage compliance with the casual conversion legislative requirements, contact us today on 1800 577 515 to discuss how we can help you within this process.

*Information correct at the time of publishing. Please be advised that there are impending Government changes to casual employment legislation of which we will keep you informed.

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