Casual employees can become permanent employees under the National Employment Standards (NES). This is called casual conversion.

For more information about casual conversion, see Becoming a permanent employee.

For information on transfer of business see When businesses change owners.

When there’s a transfer of business, a transferring casual employee’s length of employment counts from their first day with the new employer.

Employment with the previous employer doesn’t count as employment with the new employer.

This is because accessing casual conversion isn’t based on continuous service. It’s based on the length of employment with an employer.

Example

Lyra works as a casual employee at a small business.

She has the same shifts each week and can’t change her hours if she wants to.

Lyra believes that she doesn’t meet the definition of a casual employee.

After 5 months of employment, the business was sold to a new owner. Lyra is a transferring employee. She continues to work for the new employer in the same role for another 7 months.

An employee of a small business must be employed for 12 months to access casual conversion.

Lyra can’t access casual conversion yet.

Even though she has been working at the same workplace for 12 months, her length of employment with the new employer is only 7 months.