Casual employee rostering guide

Written by Roster Flow. Published 16 October 2026.

A casual shift looks simple on a roster: a name, a start and a finish. The rules behind it are less simple. The law decides who is a casual, the award sets the shortest engagement you must pay for and the point where hours turn into overtime, and several roster rules that protect full-time and part-time employees do not apply to casuals at all. Getting one of these wrong usually shows up later, as a back payment or a dispute.

This guide covers what is particular to casual employees. The general steps for any roster are in the complete guide to staff rostering, and sharing casual hours fairly is covered in how to build a fair roster for casual employees.

Who is a casual employee

Under the Fair Work Act, a person is a casual employee if, when they start, there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work and they are entitled to a casual loading or a specific casual pay rate. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s page on casual employees lists the factors that decide whether there is a firm advance commitment, including:

• Whether the employer can offer or not offer work, and whether the employee can accept or reject it
• Whether future work of the kind the employee usually does is reasonably likely
• Whether full-time or part-time employees do the same kind of work
• Whether the employee has a regular pattern of work

No single factor decides it, and the Ombudsman notes that a regular pattern of work on its own does not mean an employee is permanent. Two steps come before the first shift. Each of the five awards in this guide requires you to tell the employee, when you engage them, whether they are full-time, part-time or casual (clause 8.2), and the Clubs award adds that the decision is recorded in a letter of appointment. You must also give a new casual the Casual Employment Information Statement before, or as soon as possible after, they start. A small business employer, which the Ombudsman describes as one with fewer than 15 employees, gives it again after 12 months of employment. Other employers give it after 6 and 12 months, then every 12 months.

What the casual loading is paid instead of

Casual employees are paid a loading, or a specific casual rate, instead of some entitlements that permanent employees receive. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that casuals do not get most types of paid leave, notice of termination or redundancy pay, even if they work regularly for a long time. Under the National Employment Standards they do get:

• 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion
• 2 days of unpaid compassionate leave per occasion
• 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave per year
• Unpaid community service leave
• Access to a pathway to become a permanent employee

In the five awards most common in hospitality, retail and clubs, the loading is 25%: clause 11.1 of the Restaurant Industry Award, the Hospitality Industry (General) Award and the General Retail Industry Award, and clause 11.2 of the Fast Food Industry Award. The Registered and Licensed Clubs Award builds the 25% loading into its casual rates (clause 11.1). The casual columns of the penalty rate tables already include the loading: Table 8 in clause 24.2 of the Restaurant award, Table 14 in clause 29.2 of the Hospitality award, Table 12 in clause 22.1 of the General Retail award, Table 6 in clause 21 of the Fast Food award and clause 24.1 of the Clubs award. Current rates are on the Restaurant, Hospitality, General Retail, Fast Food and Clubs award pay rates pages.

The award rules for casual shifts

Rules differ between awards, so confirm which one covers each employee with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool. The table sets out two rules that shape every casual shift in five awards, as consolidated to 1 July 2026: the shortest engagement you must pay for, and the point where a casual’s hours are paid at overtime rates.

The minimum engagement is about pay as well as the roster. Under clause 11.3 of the Restaurant award, a casual must be engaged and paid for at least 2 consecutive hours on each occasion they are required to attend work, so a casual sent home after an hour on a quiet morning is still paid for 2. Clause 11.2 of the same award says a casual may be engaged for a maximum of 12 hours in a day or shift, which matters on long function days.

The General Retail 1.5 hour minimum is narrow. It applies only when all four conditions in clause 11.3 are met: the employee is a full-time secondary school student, works between 3:00 pm and 6:30 pm on a school day, agrees with a parent’s or guardian’s approval to work fewer than 3 hours, and a longer engagement is not possible because of the employer’s operational requirements or the employee’s availability.

Rules written for permanent staff that do not reach casuals

Several roster rules in the hospitality awards are written for full-time and part-time employees only. Knowing which ones helps you avoid two mistakes: assuming a casual has no protection at all, and assuming every rule covers them.

• Posting the roster and 7 days’ notice of a change. Clause 15.3 of the Restaurant award and clause 15.5 of the Hospitality award apply to full-time and part-time employees. The General Retail award is different: clause 15.9 requires the roster to be available to all employees and each completed roster to be kept for at least 12 months.
• The break between working days. Clause 15.1(e) of the Restaurant award requires a 10 hour break between finishing ordinary hours one day and starting the next, for employees other than casuals. The General Retail award’s 12 hour break in clause 16.6 is written for an employee, with no casual exception, and the employer and employee can agree to make it 10 hours.
• Meal and rest breaks. The break tables in clause 16 of the Restaurant and Hospitality awards apply to an employee who works the hours in the table, and clause 17.1 of the Clubs award names casual employees expressly.
• Consultation about roster changes. Clause 33 of the Restaurant award and clause 39 of the Hospitality award apply when you propose to change an employee’s regular roster or ordinary hours, except an employee whose working hours are irregular, sporadic or unpredictable. A casual on a steady pattern can be covered. The General Retail, Fast Food and Clubs awards have a clause of the same name (clauses 35, 29 and 33).

Build casual shifts around the fixed ones

1. Collect current availabilityAsk each casual for the days and times they can work and roughly how many hours they want, and set a weekly cut off for changes. The staff availability template is a form to start from.
2. Place permanent hours firstRoster full-time employees, then part-time employees on their guaranteed hours and inside their agreed availability, so a casual never takes a shift a part-time employee is entitled to.
3. Fill the gaps with casual shiftsOffer the opens, closes, peaks and days the permanent team cannot cover, keeping every shift at or above the minimum engagement in the award.
4. Check the limitsTotal each casual’s hours for the day and the week against the overtime points in the table above, and roster a break on every shift long enough to need one.
5. Mark the special daysFlag public holidays and weekends so their hours are costed separately, and check any public holiday minimum payment.
6. Publish to everyone at onceSend the roster to the whole team on the same day each week, casuals included, even where the award’s notice clause covers only permanent staff.

How to roster part-time and casual employees together works through a mixed week in detail.

Public holidays and weekends

Casual hours on weekends and public holidays cost more, and a few rules change on those days. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a casual who works on a public holiday is paid for at least 2 hours even if they work for a shorter time (clause 24.4(b) and clause 29.4(b)). The Clubs award’s 4 hour public holiday minimum in clause 24.3(a) is for employees other than casuals, so most casual club staff are covered by the 2 hour minimum in clause 11.5 instead.

Count weekend and public holiday hours separately when you cost the roster, because the casual columns of each award’s penalty table set different percentages for each day. The public holidays page lists the dates for each state.

A worked example: a casual barista’s week

A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award rosters Priya, a casual barista, for four shifts next week. Every shift sits inside the availability she gave, and she has said she would like around 20 hours.

Now the checks. Every shift is at least 2 consecutive hours, so each meets clause 11.3, and the Sunday shift sits exactly on the minimum. No shift comes near the 12 hours in clause 11.2, and 19 hours is well under 38 for the week. The two 7 hour shifts each have a 30 minute unpaid meal break starting 4 hours in: after the first hour and within the first 6 hours, as the break table in clause 16.2 requires, and not later than 5 hours after starting, so no additional paid meal break is triggered.

Two changes come up during the week. On Monday the cafe is quiet by 8:30 and the owner lets Priya go 1.5 hours into her shift. Because she was required to attend, she is paid for at least 2 hours under clause 11.3, so the early finish saves 1 hour of her rostered 3, not 1.5. On Sunday the owner wants extra cover from 14:00 to 15:00. Bringing Priya back would be a second occasion of attending work that day, paid for at least 2 hours for 1 hour of work, so the owner first checks whether someone already working until 14:00 can stay on.

When a casual wants to become permanent

Casuals who work steadily for you may reach the point where they can ask to change. Under the National Employment Standards, a casual who has been employed for at least 6 months, or 12 months by a small business employer, and believes they no longer meet the definition of a casual employee, can give you written notice that they want to become full-time or part-time. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s page on becoming a permanent employee sets out what happens next:

• You must consult the employee before responding, including about whether they would be full-time or part-time, their hours of work and when the change would take effect
• You must respond in writing within 21 days of the notice
• You can refuse only for the reasons the law allows, such as the employee still meeting the definition of a casual, or fair and reasonable operational grounds
• If you accept, the change takes effect from the first day of the employee’s first full pay period after your response, unless you both agree to another day

The roster cannot be used to head this off. An employer can’t reduce or vary an employee’s hours of work, change their pattern of work or end their employment to avoid these obligations or the employee’s right to change. A casual and an employer can also agree to a change to permanent employment at any time.

Keep a record of what was offered and worked

Records settle most questions about casual hours before they become disputes. Keep each published roster, each casual’s availability as it stood when you rostered them, the shifts offered and declined, and the hours actually worked. Under the General Retail award, a completed roster must be kept for at least 12 months (clause 15.9(c)). Compare rostered and worked hours before each pay run, because a casual is paid for each hour worked, subject to the minimum engagement, and comparing rostered and actual labour costs shows what the gaps cost.

Roster Flow keeps that record as the week runs: availability and leave from staff phones, the roster published to everybody at once, clock ins that become timesheets, and approved hours sent to Xero, MYOB or a CSV file.

A checklist for rostering casual employees

• The employee was told at engagement that they are casual, and has the Casual Employment Information Statement
• You know which award covers them, and its minimum engagement
• Permanent employees’ hours are placed before casual shifts
• Every casual shift is at or above the minimum engagement
• Daily and weekly hours are checked against the award’s overtime points
• Breaks are rostered on every shift long enough to need one
• Public holiday and weekend hours are costed separately
• Changes to a casual’s regular pattern follow the consultation clause
• No casual’s hours are cut to avoid a request to become permanent

Sources

• Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
• Fair Work Commission: Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009]
• Fair Work Commission: General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004]
• Fair Work Commission: Fast Food Industry Award 2020 [MA000003]
• Fair Work Commission: Registered and Licensed Clubs Award 2020 [MA000058]
• Fair Work Ombudsman: casual employees
• Fair Work Ombudsman: Casual Employment Information Statement
• Fair Work Ombudsman: becoming a permanent employee
• Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award

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