A short permanent stint looked like a dead end - until the Commission looked at 16 months of casual work
Can years of casual shifts count when a worker fights an unfair dismissal? The Fair Work Commission says yes.
In a decision dated June 19, 2026, the Commission knocked back a small business employer's attempt to shut down an unfair dismissal claim before it could be heard. The argument turned on a technical but high-stakes question for HR: how casual service is counted toward the minimum employment period.
The worker joined Tegrity Services Pty Ltd as a casual in October 2023, hired as a "Support Worker & Business Administration." He moved to permanent part-time as an "Operations Manager" in February 2025, then was dismissed that September. Looked at alone, his permanent service fell short of the one-year minimum that staff at small businesses must clear to be protected from unfair dismissal.
The employer raised a jurisdictional objection - a threshold argument that the worker wasn't eligible to bring a claim at all. The permanent stint was too short, it said, and the earlier casual period shouldn't count.
This is where HR should pay attention. Under the Fair Work Act, casual service can count toward the minimum employment period, but only on two conditions. The work has to be that of a "regular casual employee," and the worker must have had a reasonable expectation of continuing employment on a regular and systematic basis.
The employer accepted the first...
President Donald Trump used his Thursday (Jul 16) night address to make a sweeping case for his administration, mixing newly declassified intelligence on the 2020 election with familiar talking po...