Becoming a permanent employee

The National Employment Standards (NES) provide casual employees with a pathway to become a permanent employee. This is also known as ‘casual conversion’.

On this page:

• Accessing casual conversion
• Video: Casual conversion
• Small business employers
• Employers offering casual conversion
• Employers not making an offer
• Employees requesting casual conversion
• After an offer or request has been accepted
• Reasonable grounds for not making an offer or refusing a request
• Protections at work
• Disagreements about casual conversion
• Tools and resources
• Related information

Accessing casual conversion

Casual employees who have worked for their employer for 12 months with a regular pattern of hours need to be offered the option to convert to full-time or part-time (permanent) employment. Certain eligibility requirements need to be met for this to occur.

Casual employees may be able to request that their employer converts their employment to full-time or part-time (permanent) in some circumstances.

Video: Casual conversion

Watch our short video to learn about:

• who is eligible for casual conversion
• the two forms of casual conversion
• the rules around making an offer to convert, requesting conversion and refusing a request.

 

Small business employers

Small business employers don’t have to offer to convert their casual employees to permanent employment.

An eligible casual employee working for a small business employer can request to convert to permanent employment at any time on or after their 12-month anniversary.

To respond to an employee’s request to convert to permanent, employers need to write to them within 21 days and tell the employee if they have or haven’t accepted their request. If the employer refuses the request, they have to tell the employee their reasons why in their written response. Employers can’t refuse a request unless they have consulted the employee and have reasonable grounds to refuse the request. See Reasonable grounds for not making an offer or refusing a request for further information.

Employers offering casual conversion

Employers (except small business employers) need to make a written offer to convert their casual employee to permanent employment within 21 days after the employee’s 12-month anniversary, if the employee:

• has been employed by the employer for 12 months
• has worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for at least the last 6 months
• could continue working these hours as a full-time or part-time employee without significant changes.

The offer needs to be for the employee to convert to:

• full-time employment, if the employee’s hours worked for at least the last 6 months have been the same as full-time hours, or
• part-time employment (consistent with the employee’s regular pattern of hours worked for at least the last 6 months), if the employee’s hours worked for at least the last 6 months have been less than full-time hours.

Find out whether an employee’s hours are full-time or part-time by checking:

• the relevant award or agreement (if the employee is covered by one), or
• the hours worked by other full-time or part-time employees who work in the same or a similar position.

For more information about permanent employment, including hours and entitlements, go to:

• Full-time employees
• Part-time employees.

Downloadable checklist and template

Employers can use our Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template letter  Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template.

Employees responding to an offer

To accept an offer to convert, employees need to respond to their employer in writing within 21 days after getting the offer. If they don’t respond, their employer can assume that they’ve declined the offer.

Employers not making an offer

If an employer (except a small business employer) decides not to offer casual conversion, the employer needs to write to the employee within 21 days after the employee’s 12 month anniversary, telling them:

• that they aren’t making an offer of casual conversion
• the reasons for not making the offer.

The only reasons for not making an offer are:

• the employee hasn’t worked a regular pattern of hours:
  • on an ongoing basis for at least the last 6 months
  • which they could continue working as a full-time or part-time employee without significant changes
• the business has reasonable grounds for not making an offer (see: Reasonable grounds).

Employees requesting casual conversion

An eligible casual employee (except if they are employed by a small business employer) can make a request to convert to permanent employment from 21 days after their 12 month anniversary.

An eligible casual employee who works for a small business employer can make a request at any time on or after their 12 month anniversary.

To be eligible to request casual conversion, a casual employee:

• needs to have been employed by the employer for at least 12 months
• needs to have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for at least the last 6 months
• could continue working these hours as a full-time or part-time employee without significant changes.

An employee isn’t eligible to make a request if, in the last 6 months:

• they’ve refused an offer from their employer to convert to permanent employment
• their employer has told them in writing that they won’t be making an offer of casual conversion because there was a reasonable ground not to make the offer
• their employer has refused another request for casual conversion because there was a reasonable ground to refuse the request.

Casual employees who believe they’re eligible to become a permanent employee can make a request for conversion every 6 months.

Sometimes employees can still make a request even if their employer has told them in the last 6 months that they won’t be making an offer of casual conversion. Employees can only do this if they didn’t get an offer because they hadn’t worked a regular pattern of work in the 6 months before their earlier request, but they now have.

Downloadable checklist and template

Employees can use our checklist and template letter for requesting casual conversion checklist and template letter for requesting casual conversion.

Employers responding to a request

Employers need to respond in writing to an employee’s request within 21 days and tell the employee if they have or haven’t accepted the request. If the employer refuses the request, they also have to tell the employee their reasons why in their written response.

Employers can’t refuse a request unless they have discussed the request with the employee and have reasonable grounds to refuse the request.

Downloadable checklist and template

Employers can use our Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template letter Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template letter.

After an offer or request has been accepted

Before a casual employee converts to permanent employment, their employer has to discuss with the employee their:

• type of employment (full-time or part-time)
• hours of work as a permanent employee
• start date as a permanent employee.

If a casual employee accepts an employer’s offer to convert, the employer needs to then confirm this information in writing to their employee within 21 days after the employee accepts their offer.

If an employer accepts a casual employee’s request to convert, the employer needs to then confirm this information in writing to their employee within 21 days after the employee has requested to convert. This can be in the same notice as when the employer tells the casual employee that they are accepting their request.

The start date for the permanent hours is on the first day of the first full pay period after the employer has written to their employee, unless the employer and employee agree to another day. For example, if an employee’s pay period ends on Tuesday and the employer writes to the employee on Friday, then the start date for their permanent hours would be the following Wednesday.

If a casual employee converts to permanent employment, they will be a full-time or part-time employee, even if a contract or other agreement entered into when their employment started says they are casual. For more information about permanent employment, including hours and entitlements, go to:

• Full-time employees
• Part-time employees.

Reasonable grounds for not making an offer or refusing a request

If an employer decides to not make an offer, or refuses to accept a request, for a casual employee to convert to permanent on ‘reasonable grounds’, the reasonable grounds they rely on have to be based on facts that are known or reasonably foreseeable.

Reasonable grounds for deciding not to make an offer can include that, in the next 12 months:

• the employee’s position won’t exist
• the employee’s hours of work will significantly reduce
• the employee’s days or times of work will significantly change, and that can’t be accommodated within the employee’s available days or times for work.

Reasonable grounds can also include:

• making the offer would not comply with a recruitment or selection process required by or under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law
• the employer would have to make a significant adjustment to the employee’s work hours for them to be employed full-time or part-time.

Protections at work

An employer can’t reduce or change an employee’s hours of work, or terminate their employment, to avoid having to offer or accept a request for casual conversion. For example, an employer can’t deliberately change their employee’s roster so they don’t meet the eligibility requirements.

Casual employees are also protected against adverse action by an employer because they have a workplace right to convert to permanent employment. For more information on protections from adverse action, see Protections at work.

Regular and systematic casual employees may also be protected from unfair dismissal. See Unfair dismissal.

Disagreements about casual conversion

Workplace problems can usually be fixed quickly when employees and employers work together to come up with a solution. Sometimes this isn’t possible and extra help is needed.

If there is a disagreement about an employee converting from casual to permanent employment, employees and employers have access to the dispute resolution procedure set out in their award or agreement for dealing with disputes under the National Employment Standards. This procedure should be used to settle disputes related to casual conversion. Employers and employees can also use a dispute resolution procedure that can deal with casual conversion disputes that is set out in a relevant contract or other written agreement.

There is a specific dispute resolution procedure set out in the National Employment Standards for award and agreement-free employees who have a dispute about casual conversion and don’t otherwise have access to a dispute resolution procedure that could deal with the dispute. The Casual Employment Information Statement contains useful information about casual conversion disagreements. 

If the problem is unresolved, employers and employees can seek further assistance from the Fair Work Commission – Resolving disputes.

For more information on fixing workplace problems, see Fixing a workplace problem.

Resolving disputes in court

In some circumstances the Federal Circuit Court can resolve casual conversion disputes. See Legal action in the small claims court for further information.

Tools and resources

• National Employment Standards videos
• Pay and Conditions Tool
• Fair Work Commission website
• Offering casual conversion checklist and template letter 
• Requesting casual conversion checklist and template letter 
• Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template letter  Responding to a casual conversion request checklist and template letter

Related information

• Hours of work
• Overtime pay
• Types of employees