15. Casual employment

15.1.  For the purposes of this clause, ‘casual staff’ will be taken to mean casual sessional academic (CSA) staff and casual professional staff unless otherwise specified.

15.2.  The University acknowledges the contribution that casual staff make to the success of the University.

15.3.  A casual appointment is one where:

1. the employee is not appointed on an ongoing basis and is normally required to work an irregular pattern of hours on an intermittent or irregular basis
2. there is no expectation of continuity of employment
3. the appointment may be terminated in accordance with clause 53.8 (Notice periods).

15.4.  Where practical, casual staff will be provided with reasonable access, commensurate with available resources, to University facilities to enable them to perform University work. These include access to the library, email and internet, a working space, and out-of-hours access to the office as appropriate.

15.5.  The University is committed to assisting suitably qualified casual staff to obtain either part time or full time employment within the University where suitable vacancies arise. To achieve this objective, the University will:

1. review the usage of casual employment annually; and
2. enable existing casual staff employed at the time of advertisement of a University vacancy to apply for such vacancies. Due consideration of the contribution and experience of suitably qualified casual staff will be given by selection panels when assessing applications for on-going full time and part time positions

15.6.  Upon appointment, the University will advise all casual staff that, after serving appropriate qualifying periods (clause 15.17), casual staff may have a right to apply for conversion.

15.7.  All casual staff members will be paid a casual loading of 25% in lieu of all paid leave entitlements, including long service leave. This loading is incorporated into the casual sessional academic salary rates specified in Schedule 2.

Casual sessional academic staff

15.8.  The University supports a reduction in the number of CSA positions to facilitate CSA staff members, who wish to pursue an academic career, with opportunities to seek and obtain non-casual appointments. The University undertakes to develop a range of succession planning options for existing CSA staff to achieve this goal by providing that:

• eligible CSA staff member will have an avenue to have their employment converted to a non-casual appointment, in accordance with the conversion provisions outlined in the clause;
• existing CSA staff who are also undertaking PhD studies at the University will be given priority for an appointment and where possible will be provided with an opportunity to gain lecturing and research experience and skills; and
• CSA staff who have expressed an interest in an ongoing academic career will be considered for appointment to a non-casual vacancy prior to the University seeking external applications.

Employment conditions for casual sessional academic staff

15.9.  The definition of casual sessional academic activities and associated CSA salary rates are provided in Schedule 2.

15.10.  CSA staff will not be:

• responsible for the engagement or supervision of other staff;
• required to engage in research duties (for the purpose of this clause preparation for teaching and course/subject development is not regarded as research);
• involved in administration, except to the extent that it is necessary to support their primary teaching related function; and
• will not have sole academic or decision making responsibility for the development of an on-line teaching and learning course.

Employment conditions for casual professional staff

15.11.  A casual professional staff member may be appointed where the work involves an irregular pattern of hours or is on an intermittent or irregular basis.

15.12.  A casual professional staff member may be appointed where the work involves a regular pattern of hours or is on a regular basis where:

1. the appointment is to replace a continuing, continuing (contingent funded) or fixed term staff member who is absent from work, in which case the duration of the appointment must not exceed the period of such absence; or
2. the appointment is to fill a vacancy during a selection process; or
3. the duration of the appointment is for less than six months; or
4. the number of regular hours per fortnight is less than 14.

15.13.  The minimum engagement for a casual professional staff member is three hours except as follows:

15.14.  A staff member who is a student (including a postgraduate student), and who is expected to attend the University on the day in question in their capacity as a student shall have a minimum engagement of one hour.

15.15.  Without limiting the scope of this clause, for the purpose of this clause a student will be taken as being expected to attend on any Monday to Friday during the main teaching weeks of the University, other than public holidays.

15.16.  In order to meet their personal circumstances, a casual staff member may request, and the supervisor may agree to an engagement for less than the minimum specified in clause 15.13.

Casual staff conversion

15.17.  A casual staff member will be eligible to apply to have their employment converted to a non-casual appointment except where the staff member:

1. is a student with the University, or has recently been a student within the last 12 months;
2. is a genuine retiree; or
3. has a primary occupation with the University or elsewhere (including self-employed persons).

15.18.  Subject to clause 15.17, conversion applications will be considered if the staff member has been employed on a regular and systematic basis in the same, or a similar and identically classified position in the same department (or equivalent), over the immediately preceding period of 12 months.

15.19.  For the purposes of this clause, occasional and short-term work performed by the staff member in another classification, job or organisational area (or equivalent) will not:

1. affect the employee's eligibility for conversion;
2. be included in determining whether the employee meets or does not meet the eligibility requirements.

15.20.  A casual staff member must not be engaged and re-engaged, nor have their hours reduced in order to avoid any obligation under this provision.

Procedure for conversion to non-casual employment

15.21. Subject to clause 15.17 and 15.18, a staff member may apply to the University in writing. The delegate must decide to either:

• accept the application and offer the staff member a non-casual appointment; or
• decline the application.

15.22.  Where a conversion to non-casual appointment is approved, this will constitute an offer and the staff member will be provided with a contract of employment consistent with clause 16 (Contract of employment).The converted position may be offered as:

• a continuing; continuing (contingent funded); or to a fixed-term appointment; and
• on a full-time basis or a part-time basis.

15.23.  The non-casual appointment will, subject to the University’s operational requirements, be as consistent as is reasonably practicable with the pattern of work undertaken by the staff member during their casual appointment.

15.24.  Upon conversion, a staff member’s casual service which has been continuous with their conversion to a non-casual position will count as service for the purpose of determining or calculating any entitlements to parental leave (clause 38) and redundancy (clause 56).

15.25.  Where a conversion to non-casual appointment is declined, the staff member will be provided with written reasons for the outcome in accordance with clause 15.26 (below).

15.26.  The University will not, unreasonably, refuse an application for conversion to non-casual employment. Applications may be refused where:

1. the staff member is not eligible to apply for conversion (in accordance with clause 15.17 and 15.18);
2. there is no ongoing requirement for the position, (on a continuing or fixed term basis)
3. the staff member does not meet the essential requirements of the position.