What is a Casual Employee?

A permanent employee’s employment (whether full-time or part-time) continues indefinitely. These employees are entitled to all leave provisions under the Holidays Act 2003 whereby leave is accrued.

A casual employee is employed on an occasional or ad hoc basis, as and when required. Each assignment is seen as constituting a separate period of employment.

The relevant legal tests for a casual are:

• Employee engaged for short periods of time for specific purposes

• Lack of regular work pattern

• Lack of expectation of ongoing employment

• Employment dependent on work demands

• No obligation on the employer to offer employment and no obligation on the employee to accept further offers

Notwithstanding parties may have agreed to casual employment, imperative that the relationship in practice reflects the relationship being casual. These employees may have their Holiday Pay paid out on a ‘pay as you go basis’.

A Temporary Employee is deemed to be employed on a contract for less than 28 days - however, if the contract is extended beyond 28 days you will be automatically enrolled to Kiwisaver on day 29 – see also https://www.ird.govt.nz/kiwisaver/kiwisaver-employers/starting-employees-in-kiwisaver/auto-enrol-employees-into-kiwisaver

Further information can be found here:

https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/who-is-an-employee/types-of-employee/

https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/annual-holidays/fixed-term-changing-patterns/

Sick Leave Entitlements for Casual

All employees are entitled to sick leave if:

• they have six months of current continuous employment with the same employer, or

• they have worked for the employer for six months for:

• an average of 10 hours per week, and
• at least one hour every week or 40 hours in every month.

Each 12-month period after meeting the above, each employee gets at least 10 days of sick leave. If in any year the employee doesn’t meet the criteria, then they don’t get any new sick leave entitlement, but can use their sick leave balance which may have carried over. An employee may re-qualify for sick leave as soon as they meet the criteria.

Sick leave entitlements are not pro-rated in any way. For example, even if a part-time employee only works three days a week, they still get ten days of sick leave a year and can accumulate up to 20 sick days a year.