THE HOSPITALITY sector has traditionally engaged 50 per cent of its workforce on a cas-ual basis, while 33 per cent of employees are full-time and only 17 per cent are part-time. But one way to soften the financial impact of the transition to modern awards, and to build a reliable workforce, is to offer casuals permanent part time positions.

Save 14 per cent per hour

If you’re currently employing casual employees to work long hours on a regular basis, they are getting the “best of both worlds” as they are getting the job security of part-time employment yet remunerated as a casual. The Hospitality Industry General Award 2010 (HIGA) and the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 (RIA) provide casual employees with a 25 per cent loading as compensation for forgoing leave entitlements and other entitlements of full-time and part-time employment. However, the additional cost of leave entitlements to a wage bill is approximately 11 per cent per annum. This means, you’re paying an extra 14 per cent to an employee engaged casually.

Avoid those expensive overtime provisions

The Hospitality Industry General Award 2010 (HIGA) and the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 (RIA) entitle part-time employees to overtime penalties for “all time worked in excess of the hours agreed upon”.

This breaks away from the traditional application of overtime penalties to any hours in excess of 38 per week. This clause allows you to agree upon a pattern of work and only pay overtime if variations are not “agreed upon”.

This offers great flexibility to businesses that experience seasonal fluctuations in demand because you can now offer a pattern of work that reflects your business needs. For example, you could offer a part-time employee 15 hours per week in winter, 20 hours per week in autumn and spring and 45 hours per week in summer. Provided you reach a mutual agreement and this is recorded in writing, overtime penalties are not payable for the additional hours worked in summer.

From an employee’s perspective there’s a bonus too. Lots of employees want the opportunity to earn extra cash over summer but are restricted from doing so because businesses can’t afford overtime penalties. Now you can offer the extra hours without the financial strain.

Build a reliable workforce

An employee engaged on a part-time basis has the obligation to give notice if they wish to terminate their employment.

The length of notice required increases with job tenure. In their first year of service they must give one weeks notice and the National Employment Standards have extended the one week requirement to apply to the probationary period as well. If the part time employee fails to give notice, you can withhold monies to the value of the required notice period, for example, if they don’t give one week’s notice, you can withhold one week’s pay.

This is a financial incentive for them to be committed to your business. On the other hand, casuals can quit without notice, which may mean you are forced to resort to expensive temping agencies to fill a shift at the last minute.

How do I convince my staff to convert to part-time?

This is not a one-sided argument; there are many benefits for employees as well including:

• Guaranteed hours each week allowing them to make long-term financial commitments they previously couldn’t make.

• First preference to shifts because casuals will be used as the “supplementary workforce” to fill the gaps that couldn’t be filled by permanent staff. This will appeal to those with busy schedules outside of work.

• The benefit of annual leave and personal/carers leave, which is invaluable to employees with children or other caring responsibilities.

• Job security because employers are obligated to ‘performance manage’ part-time employees (who have completed the probationary period). This offers much needed protection in the uncertain economic climate.

This information was supplied by the IR team at Restaurant & Catering Australia. For more information call (03) 9421 3775.