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Casual employment
Last updated September 2024
This chapter explains casual employment, and the legal entitlements and protections that apply to casual employees.
What is casual employment?
Casual employment is a series of individual engagements. A casual engagement might be:
- week to week;
- day to day;
- shift to shift;
- hour to hour; or
- for any other agreed short period.
Important: Each engagement involves a separate contract of employment that starts at the beginning of the engagement and ends at the end of the engagement.
In 2023, 2.7 million people (22% of employees, 19% of all employed) were employed as casuals, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.