You’ve worked the same job for a year or more. The hours are regular, the shifts are predictable, you’re treated like everyone else on the team — but you’re still labelled “casual” and paid the casual loading instead of accruing leave. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 reforms in place since 2021 (and refined in 2024), long-term casuals with a firm advance commitment of work have a real pathway to conversion, and where conversion was wrongly denied, there may be unpaid leave entitlements to recover.
The legal context — casual conversion under the Fair Work Act
Section 66B of the Fair Work Act 2009 requires non-small-business employers to offer permanent conversion to eligible casual employees after 12 months of service where the work has been on a regular pattern that could continue without significant change. The 2024 closing-loopholes amendments redefined “casual employee” in section 15A to focus on the absence of a firm advance commitment to ongoing work, looking at the substance of the relationship rather than the contract label. Where a worker has been misclassified as a casual despite regular and systematic work with a firm advance commitment, they may be entitled to back-paid annual leave, personal leave, and other NES entitlements that should have accrued — set off against the casual loading paid (per section 545A).
Common employer defences and why they fail
- “You were happy with casual loading.” Section 15A focuses on the substance of the work relationship, not what the worker said about it.
- “Your contract says casual.” The label is not decisive. The pattern of work and firm advance commitment determine status.
- “We offered conversion and you declined.” The offer must comply strictly with the section 66B procedure — many “informal” offers don’t.
- “Casual loading covers it all.” Section 545A allows the loading to be set off against the back-pay claim, but only where it was clearly identifiable as compensation for those entitlements.
The Letter of Demand approach
The Letter of Demand sets out the pattern of work, the absence of a compliant conversion offer, the resulting NES entitlements (annual leave accrual, personal leave accrual, redundancy pay if applicable), the casual loading offset calculation, and a 14-day deadline. It cites sections 15A, 66B, and 545A of the Fair Work Act and flags the Fair Work Ombudsman and small-claims escalations.
What Claim Done delivers (flat $79)
Answer the wizard about your work pattern, your dates, your hours, and your rate. Claim Done generates a Letter of Demand citing the right Fair Work Act sections and the calculation of unpaid entitlements, as a PDF.
What to expect — and the Fair Work escalation
Casual conversion claims are increasingly common and employers know the law has tightened. Many settle at the Letter of Demand stage. If yours doesn’t, the Fair Work Ombudsman handles complaints and the small-claims division of the Federal Circuit and Family Court hears underpayment claims directly. Note: this is a wage-recovery path, not an unfair-dismissal claim — those go to the Fair Work Commission and have strict 21-day filing deadlines that we don’t handle.