What Do Australia’s Casual Job Rules Mean for Staffing Agencies?

Flexibility has always been the backbone of Australia’s temporary and casual staffing sector. It allows agencies to respond quickly to client demand, manage changing rosters, and scale teams as needed. But with the tightened compliance framework around casual employment now fully in place, that flexibility needs to operate within clear, trackable boundaries.

Legislative changes have been in place for several months now, making time to deeply familiarise yourself with the implications can be a challenge. We've put together this piece as an overview of key considerations. May it also serve as a reminder that compliance and agility can work hand in hand when built into your daily workflow.

What staffing businesses need to  know

The current rules, introduced in stages across 2024 and 2025, are now fully operational. They are overseen by the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman and together they provide a consistent definition of “casual employment” and a pathway for eligible employees to request conversion to permanent status.

Here are the key changes: 

• A worker is a casual employee if, at the start of their employment, there is no firm advance commitment to ongoing work, and they receive casual loading or a casual rate.

• “Firm advance commitment” is judged by the practical reality of the relationship, not just what’s written in a contract.

• Eligible casuals can now make a written request to convert to part-time or full-time after six months (or 12 months for small businesses), and employers must respond within 21 days.

• Every casual employee must receive the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) at the start of employment and at set intervals.

• The rules also strengthen penalties for sham casual arrangements, where a role that’s effectively ongoing is incorrectly treated as casual.

Why this matters for staffing businesses: 

Staffing businesses run on flexibility: adjusting rosters, filling shifts quickly, and scaling teams up or down to meet client needs. The updated casual employment rules don’t take that away; they simply set clearer boundaries around what “casual” really means. 

If a worker’s roster becomes too regular or predictable, or if they can’t reasonably decline shifts, the arrangement may begin to look permanent. The goal isn’t to limit flexibility but to ensure your systems show that each engagement remains casual by choice and design.

With the right rostering and record-keeping tools, staffing firms can embed compliance naturally into day-to-day operations, maintaining agility while confidently meeting Fair Work standards.

Practical compliance steps without sacrificing flexibility 

1. Review your workforce and contracts
Regularly check that your casual classifications still align with reality. If someone consistently works fixed days or hours and doesn’t receive casual loading, they might need to be re-evaluated. With a large pool of workers, agencies can have the best of intentions, but it's more important than ever not to lose sight of individual candidates' hours. 

2. Put rostering and records controls in place

Maintaining variability in shift offers and acceptance can help sustain casual classification. If the roster becomes predictable and the worker cannot decline or the employer must supply the work, the relationship may look permanent. Use systems that log offers, acceptances, refusals, patterns of work, and keep clear evidence. 

Make sure every casual employee receives the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) when required. When a casual becomes eligible to ask for permanent work under the employee choice pathway, have a clear process to: 

• Send and track the notice

• Respond within 21 days

• Keep records of what was done

How Entire OnHire enables agencies to balance agility with compliance 

With these current obligations in place, your business needs more than spreadsheets and manual tracking, you need a system designed for dynamic staffing and legal transparency. Built for managing high volume, high speed workforces in high compliance sectors, Entire OnHire delivers: 

• Shift Rostering with Compliance Visibility
  EOH’s Shift Rostering   feature gives allocators real-time visibility into every member’s work history. Monitor    who is approaching their 6 months or 12 month mark, when eligibility for conversion to permanent employment may apply under  Fair Work Ombudsman     guidelines. This proactive view helps agencies plan ahead, manage rosters confidently, and ensure each worker’s status aligns with Fair Work requirements.
  
  
• Reports and Analytics for Smarter Decisions 
  With EOH’s Reports and Analytics, allocators can easily generate detailed insights across both employees and clients. The system tracks every shift worked, shift requests from clients, and member availability creating a clear record of work patterns and demand. These  support the “no firm advance commitment” principle under the Fair Work Act, reinforcing that casual work remains genuinely flexible and transparent. 
   
  
• Secure Document Management for Complete Compliance 
  EOH’s secure document management ensures every compliance document from licenses and certifications to CEIS acknowledgements is safely stored, easy to monitor, and linked directly to each member’s profile. This makes it simple to verify compliance at any time. Agencies can configure customised alerts to suit their specific compliance requirements, ensuring they always stay ahead of employer obligations.
  
  
• Flexible Technology for Adaptable Employment
  The integration between Entire OnHire and XeopleRecruit  makes it simple for agencies to manage transitions when an employee chooses to move from casual employment to a permanent role. Having technology that can facilitate that transition allows you to stay in control of that candidate's journey. Share and synchronise  key information, including Member, Applicant, Client, Job, and Professional data across both systems.   So often, recruiters will miss out on commission opportunities due to disjointed perm and casual databases. 

Since the final rollout of these rules in early 2025, most agencies have become increasingly mindful of how they manage casual employment arrangements. There is still a significant demand for casual employment, with flexible and on-demand work being best suited to many demographics, but people's employment preferences change. For agencies, this shift highlights the importance of being prepared to support those transitions without compromising retention or efficiency.

By simplifying day-to-day operations for allocators and recruiters, Entire OnHire helps agencies stay compliant while maintaining a strong, stable workforce. The platform turns compliance from a box-ticking exercise into a practical advantage keeping your business organised, efficient, and ready for every change.

If you’re in the staffing industry and want to stay ahead of the compliance curve while preserving workforce agility, we invite you to book a demo of Entire OnHire. See how the platform can be configured for your business, aligned with the latest casual employment rules, and scaled to meet your rostering, record-keeping and analytics needs. Contact us today and discuss how we can support your business.