New legislative requirement for employers to give casual employees casual employment information statement

As part of the recent amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), there is a requirement for employers to provide every casual employee with the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS).

The CEIS contains information on how a casual employee is defined; casual conversion; and the Fair Work Commission’s role in resolving disputes regarding casual conversion. The CEIS is different to the Fair Work Information Statement.

For new casual employees, that is casuals who were employed on or after 27 March 2021, the CEIS must be provided to the employee before, or as soon as practicable after, the employee starts employment.

For existing casual employees, that is casuals who were employed before 27 March 2021:

• small business employers (being those with less than 15 employees) are required to provide the CEIS to their existing casual employees as soon as possible after 27 March 2021; and
• all other employers are required to provide the CEIS to their existing casual employees as soon as possible after 27 September 2021.  

The Fair Work Regulations 2009 (Cth) reg 2.02A, available here, deals with the methods of providing the CEIS to employees. This includes, for example, emailing the CEIS to the employee’s work email address or an email address the employee has nominated, or personally providing the CEIS to the employee.   

The CEIS can be downloaded from the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website, a link to which is available here. We encourage employers to regularly check for updates to the Casual Employment Information Statement to ensure they are providing employees with the most up to date version.

Please contact us for specific advice on the CEIS or the 2021 amendments to the FW Act relating to casual employees.

National Workplace Lawyers

Note – this article is for information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to render legal advice.