Important changes for small business employers start today

While all employers – big or small – have obligations to their employees, small business employers (businesses with an employee headcount of less than 15) sometimes have a little leeway. For example, often when legal changes come into force, small business employers are given a little extra time to prepare. That has been the case for two laws that came into force last year for most employers. From today, 26 August, these laws will now apply to small businesses:

Right to disconnect: The workplace right to disconnect, enshrined in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), protects employees who refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless the refusal is unreasonable. The obligation to respect this right has been in place for many employers for a year. However, small business employers were exempt. This exemption has now ceased. Learn more about the right to disconnect from our previous bulletin on the topic here.
Casual conversion: Employees of small business employers now have access to the ‘employee choice’ pathway, allowing casual employees to choose to become full-time or part-time employees in some circumstances. Under the employee choice pathway, a casual employee can request to convert to permanent employment if they have served at least 6 months of employment (12 months for employees of a small business) and they no longer meet the FW Act definition of casual employee. Find out more about casual conversion in the Employment Law Handbook chapter, Casual employment.

As we can see, employment laws don't stand still for long – even for small business employers! At the Employment Law Handbook, we don't either. We keep on top of the changes so you don't have to. Not subscribed? Sign up for a free trial to see what you're missing. Click the subscribe button on the bottom right to start today.

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