As an employer, you are no doubt aware that you need to provide all new employees with a Fair Work Information Statement. A recent amendment to the Fair Work Act 2009, now requires employers to also provide casual employees with a second statement – the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS). That is, casual employees must be given two statements. The CEIS must be given to your existing and new casual employees and specific timeframes apply for issuing this statement to your casual employees.

Existing casual employees

An existing casual employee in this context means an employee who was employed prior to 27 March 2021. An employee employed on or after 27 March 2021 is taken to be a new employee and the section of this article below under the heading “New casual employees” applies to them instead.

Small business employers (that is, employers of fewer than 15 employees) are already expected to have provided a copy of the CEIS to their existing casual employees. If you are a small business employer and you have not provided a copy of the CEIS to your existing casual employees yet, you should do so as soon as possible.

Employers who are not small business employers (that is, employers of 15 or more employees) must provide a copy of the CEIS to their existing casual employees as soon as practicable after 27 September 2021.

Employers are reminded that for the purpose of calculating how many employees your business has, you need to count the employees employed by any associated entities as if they are your own employees. For example, if your business employs 10 employees and you have an associated entity that employs 12 employees, then you are taken to have 22 employees and so you are not a small business employer.

New casual employees

All employers, regardless of size, must provide a copy of the CEIS to new casual employees (those employed on or after 27 March 2021) as soon as practicable after the new casual employee commences employment. You can also provide a copy of the CEIS before they commence employment if you wish.

Employers may wish to have a standard onboarding plan that includes the provision of the CEIS at a particular point of the process, for example, on the first day of employment, alongside a copy of the ATO’s Tax file number declaration form.

Casual Employment Information Statement

The CEIS can be found here:  https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/national-employment-standards/casual-employment-information-statement. We suggest that employers download the CEIS from the Fair Work Ombudsman website each time that they need to issue it given that there may be changes made from time to time.

Should you have any further questions, please contact Senior Associate, Kelly Ralph, or another member of our team who can assist you.