Snapshot

• The Industrial Court has delivered a landmark ruling clarifying the meaning of casual employment under the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (NSW).
• The Court found that Mr Jackson, a community service field officer employed as a casual by Corrective Services NSW, was in fact an ongoing employee under the Act.
• The decision has significant consequences for NSW public sector employers, who are now faced with the task of auditing the type of employment under which employees are engaged.

In Public Service Association and Professional Officers’ Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales v State of New South Wales [2026] NSWIC 10, the re-established Industrial Court of NSW determined that an employee of five years’ employment with Corrective Services NSW (‘the respondent’) was not a casual employee despite his classification as such, but was instead employed on an ongoing basis for the purpose of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (NSW) (‘GSE Act’).

At the heart of the decision was s 43(4) of the GSE Act which defines casual employment as ‘employment to carry out irregular, intermittent, short-term, urgent or other work as and when required’. Justice Chin distinguished the concept of casual employment in s 43(4) from both its common law and Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (‘Fair Work Act’) relatives, cementing it as a distinct sui generis statutory concept.

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