Casual work

Lots of young people work in casual jobs, such as working as a shop assistant or in a restaurant. This can be because they like the flexibility to work around school/university or because it suits their employer.

 

Casual jobs are normally paid on an hourly or daily rate.

 

As well as offering flexibility, casual work also usually pays a higher hourly rate because you receive an extra payment or loading on top of the basic hourly rate. This is to make up for not receiving the other benefits paid to permanent workers, such as sick leave. Casuals also recieve an additional 1/12th of the hourly rate for each hour worked for holiday pay.

  

Casuals working under certain awards must be paid a minimum number of hours a day, while other awards may allow casual employees to work an indefinite number of hours.  

 

So if you are a casual working under an award, it is important to check the award pay rate applicable to your job, as you could be getting underpaid.

 

Use OIR's NSW Awards Online check your award and the hourly rate you should be paid.

 

If you are employed under the federal industrial realtions system you should go to the Workplace Authority for information about your correct rate of pay.

 

Disadvantages of casual employment

 

While casual workers do get flexibility and normally an extra loading on the basic rate of pay, there are some disadvantages to casual work that you should be aware of.

 

Generally, as a casual worker you won't have:

  • access to paid sick leave, public holidays or annual leave -  while a casual receives a payment in lieu of annual leave, this is often spent at the time it is paid and not saved to cover your holiday!
  • a guarantee of hours to be worked
  • a requirement to be given a roster or to receive notice of roster changes
  • the guarantee of a regular income - so it can be difficult to budget and this can limit your access to arranging personal finance and a loan
  • any notice of termination period or access to redundancy entitlements
  • limited access to on-the-job training, career development and workplace information.

 

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