Casual conversion & communication in foundU
As part of the new requirements from Fair Work Australia for 'closing loopholes' the project, you may be wondering how your business can handle employer casual conversion responsibilities and how your foundU platform can support your business in this process.
Some key facts about the new Casual employment change legislation:
- The new changes are effective August 26th, 2024.
- There will be a new definition of casual work.
- Casuals will have a new pathway to permanent employment under the NES.
- This new employee choice pathway will allow eligible casuals to notify their employer in writing of their intention to change to permanent employment.
- Employers can only refuse based on certain conditions.
- There are refined employer and employee responsibilities, one of these being;
- Casual employees need the CEIS (Casual Employment Information Statement) communicated to them at regular intervals.
In this article, we will cover:
- foundU automated comms to employees to meet the casual legislation requirements.
- Reporting options to assist in casual conversion
- FAQs
If you'd like to read more about these changes and your responsibilities as an employer, you can go ahead and do so in the relevant section at Fair Work.
We’ve recently updated our platform to accommodate new requirements for the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS). Moving forward, this document will be sent separately to casual employees based on specific intervals as required by Fair Work.
Hot tip: We have updated the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) in your platform on your behalf and update it each time a new version is released! There's nothing you need to do!
To understand how requirements are met for casual conversion, please read on to understand:
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- Your requirements for communicating the CEIS to casual employees.
- The automated email communication that will be sent to casual employees at regular intervals.
- How to customise this communication template.
- The trigger points within your foundU platform that cause this email comm to be sent.
- Important considerations for employees moving from permanent to casual.
Direct communication to casual employees
As per the new requirements from Fair Work Australia, the process has changed slightly. Now, it is the responsibility of the employee to initiate a conversation with the manager regarding permanent employment. The employer is required to provide the CEIS at regular intervals so that the employee knows their rights.
We have automated your platform to review casual employees’ positions' start dates and automatically send the CEIS if the employee falls into one of the following intervals:
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- Upon, or as close to, the start of employment
- 6 months post-start
- 12 months post-start
- Every 12 months thereafter
This includes all employees who are:
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- New casuals and
- Employees transitioning from permanent to casual positions
This communication content will be sent via email (no SMS option) and logged in the comms section of the Employee Profile. It is a sytem-generated communication meaning it will not need to be initiated by an admin. At anytime if you wish to personalise the content to add your logo or other wording you can. The CEIS PDF itself and the frequency of the email cannot be changed.
- Casual Employment Information Statement
| Recipient | Default content |
| Employee | A message sent to casual employees on the commencement of a casual position. Then also sent on the 6-month, 12-month and each subsequent 12-month employment start date anniversary. |
To personalise the CEIS communication template:
- Navigate to Communication > Communication Content and search for the message template 'Casual Employment Information Statement'.
Tip: Please refrain from searching by comm ID number as these can differ across platforms. - Select the Message Template heading to edit the Message Template and follow these instructions.
Once you have made your changes, your content will be automatically saved.
Trigger points for the CEIS comm
It is important to understand which important dates in your platform trigger the sending of this communication so that you can ensure you are meeting your requirements with Fair Work. The trigger points for this communication are as follows:
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- First initial CEIS sent- This will be based on the position start date of the first casual position assigned to the employee profile.
- Subsequent CEIS emails sent - Will be based on 6-month, 12-month, and every 12 months thereafter based on the Employment Start Date on the Employee profile.
For new casual employees, this process will be simple and will follow Fair Work intervals precisely at the above-mentioned intervals.
However, when a permanent employee transitions to casual employment, the intervals may not fall on the exact 6, 12 and 12+ dates, as the subsequent CEIS emails are sent based on the Employment start dates on the Employee Profile.
Hot tip: If an employee holds multiple casual positions, the CEIS communication will only trigger from the initial casual position start date.
SCENARIO
We'll look at the example below to understand how CEIS automated emails may sequence differently for employees moving from permanent to casual.
Jimmy Lin joined our business on January 1st, 2024, as a permanent employee. Jimmy decides to transition to casual on March 1st, 2024. As a result, his automated CEIS communications will be sent as below.
- Initial CEIS automated comm: March 1st, 2024 (on the eve of the day of his first casual position assigned)
- 6-month CEIS automated comm: July 1st, 2024 - 6 months from his initial employment start date, which is 4 months after he became casual.
- 12-month CEIS automated comm: January 1st, 2025 - 12 months from his initial employment start date, which is 10 months after he became casual.
In this case, Jimmy is receiving his CEIS communication at the correct intervals of time, but slightly earlier than the expected 6, 12 and 12 + months. This situation will still meet the requirements of Fair Work as the intervals of the communication are accurate.
Hot tip: If you would like to align the employee's CEIS automated comms with the 6, 12, 12+ intervals, you can optionally edit the Employment start date (pictured above) on the Employee Profile to match the start date of the casual position.
Please note: When a new casual employee, the system will process this information the next morning, meaning the CEIS communication will be sent the day after the casual position is assigned. Similarly, if an employee reaches the 6-month mark today, the system will send them the CEIS on the morning they surpass the 6-month threshold.
Other considerations
In addition to managing the CEIS communication content, there are a few more tools and communications in your platform that you may want to utilise.
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- As employees reach their 12-month work anniversary at different times, you may like to turn on milestone notifications for your managers to receive an email when the work anniversary arrives. This communication can be set at intervals of your choice.
As a part of this process, you may want to use the data in your platform to review:
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- A record of the CEIS communication being sent to your employees
- Employment start dates of your casuals
We will briefly explain how you can do these below.
Reporting on casual employment start dates
You may want to review this information if your employee has requested to have a meeting regarding seeking permanent employment and you wish to review their start dates or position history. There are 2 exports which should assist.
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- Employment History export
- Approved People export
Employment History export
Using the employment history export, you can see a list of the different positions held by the employee, including employment type and start and end dates of each position.
To use this export:
- Select Employee Card > Employment Type > then Employment History to review all their positions.
- Select Export CSV to export the employment history of the employee.
In our example below, we export the employment history of our casual employee Jackson before sitting down to discuss his permanent employment opportunities.
Approved People export
Another method to review the start date of your casual employees is to use the Approved person export.
- Navigate to People > Approved people > expand your page size to encompass all of your casuals.
- Filter by 'casual' under the Employment type filter, scroll to the bottom and Apply filter.
- Select Bulk Actions > Export all Filtered, and choose the relevant data fields for your export. We would suggest:
- Employee Name and ID
- Employment Type
- Employment Start date
- Casual Start date
- Scroll to the bottom and select Export to produce a CSV file.
In our example below, we export the above-mentioned data for our casual employees using the Approved People export.
When is the Casual Employment Information Statement updated in my platform and do I need to action this?
There is nothing for you to do here - we have got you!
We stay on top of Legislative changes and continue to update the CEIS each and every time a new version is released.
Will all of the casuals in my platform automatically be sent the automated CEIS communication on August 26th, 2024?
Not exactly, there will be no blanket communication to casuals on this day. On or after August 26th, communications can be expected to trigger based on the information in the 'Trigger Points for the CEIS Comm' and will go as follows:
- For a new casual employee put in your platform today, they will receive the triggered communication tomorrow (as the system processes the information of the new position the next morning).
- For all existing casuals, they will receive the first communications when they hit the 6, 12 or 12+ months from their employment start date.
To understand how this new legislation effects employees prior to August 26th, 2024 and the 'phasing out' of the old legislation, please read this guide from Fair Work.
Can I view a summary of who was sent this CEIS communication in the Communication Log?
Not at this time sorry, if you would like to see the date the CEIS Communication was last sent to an employee, please navigate to the profile of the employee in question and select the Comms tab on the right.
Using the casual position start date (for new casuals) and employment start date (for employees that have transitioned to casual), you should be able to locate the date and the record of this communication being sent.
When is the Fair Work Information Statement (FWIS) sent and is that different to the CEIS?
The FWIS is automatically sent from your platform to an employee (casual or permanent) once they are accepted in your platform. This communication is hard-coded and sent to employees as an attachment to the email they receive when their pending profiles are approved.
Each casual employee will also receive a CEIS at the relevant intervals in the article above.
What is if I don't want this communication sent to my employees, can it be turned off?
No, as it is a requirement of Fair Work, we have designed this communication to save you time and energy and so that you can ensure you are meeting the legislation requirements.
I notice some of the casuals in my system have blanks for Employment Start Date, why?
This is because you do not have a start date in the Employees profile > Overview Page > Employment Start Date. If there is no date here, you'll need to update it.
This may mean that you'll first need to locate the employees start date. This information would normally be found on a contract. If you send contracts through the platform, you'll be able to see the start date on the employee's signed contract located in Employee profile > Documents icon > Documents tab.
To update a position start date, you'll navigate to an Employee profile > Employee Card> locate the casual position > edit the position add in the start date and save.