What a month!
August saw a great deal of change, from legislative changes to our relocation back to Sydney. Although we miss the beach, we're lucky enough to live near this lovely bushland.
What this means for you is greater availability for in person meetings and workshops.
The legislative changes include changes to the definition of casual employment, the right to disconnect*, and changes for contractors.
Some of our work this month included workshops for leadership teams with some of our clients, a compliance focus with 'people practices audits', and some work on psychosocial risk management for clients.
Casual Employment
From 26 August 2024, there were changes to casual employment, including a new definition of ‘casual employee’, a new way for casual employees to change from casual
to permanent (full-time or part-time) employment and new requirements for providing the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS).
The definition considers the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship, not just what is in the employment contract. A casual employee is one who, when they start employment:
has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work.
receives a casual loading on top of their pay rate.
A casual employee who started before 26 August 2024 has a transition period before the changes to requesting to change to permanent come into effect. The old rules apply during this period.
Right to disconnect
Starting 26 August 2024, if you have more than 15 employees, your employees have the right to refuse contact outside of their working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable.
For small businesses this commences on 26 August 2025.
Refusal may be unreasonable if the topic is truly urgent, such as not coming into the office as planned the next day; you need someone to cover someone else’s work the next day.
Contractors
Contractors are now determined as being contractors or employees based on the ‘whole of relationship’ test. This considers more than the written agreement, which in the past was the primary decision point. It looks at the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the relationship, and includes several factors:
the amount of control you / the business has over how work is performed
who holds financial responsibility and risk
who supplies the tools and equipment
the contractor/ workers ability to delegate or subcontract work
how hours of work are set
any expectation of work continuing indefinitely.
Tips:
check your contractor agreements and seek advice as needed.
Consider how things work in practice – are they really operating the same way as an employee?
As always, reach out if you need support or guidance.
In coming months we've got some Ignition Sessions scheduled. These are on Humanitix and are short, lunch and learn style workshops based on our longer offerings. Search 'Ignition' online or go to https://events.humanitix.com/host/desleigh-white
Comments