Over the festive season, many businesses employ additional staff
on a casual basis to help manage the steep increase in customers,
sales and the extended retail trading hours. It is important that
employers are aware of their obligations to casual staff, for
example to a minimum number of hours work in any engagement, and
minimum rates of pay inclusive of casual loading. It is also
necessary to mitigate any risk that a casual employee may later be
able to mount legal claims to permanent employee entitlements.
In the recent decision of Skene v Workpac,1
a casual employee successfully argued that they had an entitlement
to annual leave. Mr Skene argued that he was a permanent employee
after he had worked as a dump truck operator at a coal mine for
12-hour shifts, on a '7 days off, 7 days on' continuous and
regular roster over a period of 4 years. The Full Bench found that
the essence of a casual employment relationship to be "the
absence of a firm advance commitment as
