Casual Employment

Engagement and payment of Casual Staff is handled by Payroll Services within the Office of People and Culture and your queries can be directed there.

What is Casual Employment

A casual employee is a person engaged by the hour and paid on an hourly basis.

Casual employees should only be employed for short-term, ad hoc or irregular periods of time, usually less than full-time in any week. Each period of casual employment is a distinct period of employment, with no guarantee, expectation or entitlement of work beyond the current period of employment.

How do I arrange for the employment of a casual employee?

First, you must complete a Casual Employment Authority (CEA) Form on the OPC Forms and Templates page.

Next, obtain approval from the relevant delegated officer, specified in the UWS Delegations (B12 for academic and professional staff, C7 for casual research [but not academic] staff). Casual employees are paid via the payroll. The completed form should then be sent to Payroll Services in HR Client Services.

How is the hourly rate calculated for casual employees?

This depends on whether the employee is academic or general.

Academic Staff
There are different rates for different types of casual academic work. Details of the types of work are in Schedule 2 of the UWS Academic Staff Agreement 2009-2012. The hourly rates currently being paid are listed in Casual Academic Pay Rates.

Professional Staff
The rate paid is the ordinary hourly equivalent of the applicable rate prescribed for the classification for the HEW level plus a loading of 25% as compensation for the casual hiring and in lieu of all statutory and leave entitlements. The rates that are currently being paid are listed in Professional Staff Salary Rates.

How are casuals paid?

Individual casual employees are paid via the payroll, by entry of timesheet online or by submitting a timesheet.

Timesheets need to be submitted and approved within two weeks of completing the work.

The University has obligations under Income Tax legislation to ensure that it does not facilitate the avoidance of tax by it's employees. The University's payroll system facilitates the automatic deduction of income tax at source as required under the PAYE provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

Superannuation

Under the conditions of our Enterprise Agreements the 9% Superannuation (Super Guarantee Levy) is paid by the University into an account with Unisuper. The University has a Trust Deed of Agreement which nominates Unisuper as our fund of choice.
The ATO permits:

“Your employee may not be eligible under the superannuation guarantee to choose a super fund if you pay superannuation for them under a:

1. State industrial award
2. Preserved state agreement
3. Federal industrial agreement such as an Australian workplace agreement (AWA)
4. Pe-reform AWA, pre-reform certified agreement, collective agreement
5. Old IR agreement, individual transitional employment agreement (ITEA), workplace determination, or enterprise agreement (these are defined terms in Federal industrial relations law); “

Unisuper

Casual employee's names and address details etc are downloaded from payroll records and uploaded to the Unisuper system each fortnight, once the payroll run has completed. Unisuper will send a welcome letter (sometimes 3 months later) and an 'Accumulation 1' application form to the employee. This original 'Accumulation' application should be completed and returned to Unisuper.

Rollover to Another Fund

Once the employee has finished their contract with UWS he/she may rollover their superannuation to their own fund. Please wait 2 weeks after your final salary payment.

This can be initiated through their own fund or use the Unisuper Portability form. Unisuper will process the rollover. The Portability form must be an original with an attached original certified copy of a driver’s licence etc as proof of identity.

Contribution Types

Casual employees are able to make voluntary contributions to their super account. If casual employees have more than one job, they must be aware that the contribution is usually placed on the current job and the CEA Approval number should be quoted to avoid confusion.

As a casual employee, please be aware that your claim forms are usually 2 weeks behind the date of payment, so start date for any super contributions should be made in accordance with the start date of your CEA and as close as possible to the start date of the CEA.

1. After tax contributions -an amount or percentage. This can be done by using the Unisuper Post-Tax Voluntary Contribution form. The advantage on a low yearly salary (including any other casual work outside the University) employee may be eligible for the Government Co-Contribution ($1 for every $1 contributed by employee after tax - max $1,000).
2. Salary Sacrifice(Pre-Tax) contributions – an amount or percentage.  This can be done either by writing in block letters on top of CEA “100% SALARY SACRIFICE” or by completing the Unisuper Pre-Tax Voluntary Contribution form, sending to Pauline Pickham.

All requests to start/stop any voluntary contributions to superannuation, must be submitted in writing. Any requests or queries should be forwarded to Pauline Pickham.

Permanent full-time/part-time employees who have terminated their employment with the University and return on a casual contract will be an Accumulation account. Their defined benefit account will change to an Accumulation 1 type after 90 days unless they defer their defined benefit. 

If you resign from the University after 90 days your account will transfer to an accumulation account. 
The benefit calculation is done at the date of exit so whichever salary one is on at that time will be used.

What happens if a casual employee requests payment through a private company?

This is only permissible where the University employs a company, partnership or trust, not an individual. The University MAY legally make payments to the contractor via Accounts Payable in the Finance Office.

In order to qualify as a contractor and hence be paid via Accounts Payable, the organisation MUST, as a minimum, satisfy at least seven of the Australian Taxation Office's Criteria for Independent Contractor Status.

In addition to meeting a majority of the 12 tests, the contractor MUST satisfy, in particular, test 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and, most importantly, 8. If they fail to meet any of these individual criteria, the University must deem them to be an employee rather than a contractor.

Can casual employment be converted to ongoing or fixed-term employment?

Yes, under certain circumstances an employee can apply for 'conversion'. The UWS General Staff Agreement contains the provision that a casual employee will become eligible to apply to have their employment converted to ongoing employment or fixed-term employment, if they have been employed by the University on a regular and systematic basis in the same or a substantially same position in the same organisational unit either:

• over the immediately preceding 12 months during which their average weekly hours worked equalled at least 50% of the ordinary weekly hours of an equivalent employee engaged full-time; or
• over the immediately preceding 24 months.

Full details about conversion can be found in the UWS General Staff Agreement 2009-2012. Application is made by completing the Application for Conversion of Employment Status from Casual to Ongoing or Fixed-term.

When should the payment arrangements be made?

If there is a request that the University should employ a contractor rather than an individual person (i.e., where payment does not go through the payroll), it is essential that tests are applied BEFORE the confirmation of the engagement.

It is the responsibility of the College/School/Divisional area to assess the status of the organisation and to obtain copies of the insurance policy before a contract is issued.

Evidence of the meeting of the criteria and copies of insurance policies should accompany invoices submitted to Accounts Payable.

Where do I obtain further information?

Contact Payroll Services, in HR Client Services.