Sixty hours a week yet still legally casual, and that was just the start

A security guard who worked up to 60 hours weekly was still legally casual, member Sarah Kennedy-Martin ruled on 7 April 2026.

Shelani Devi started as a security guard with Allied Investments Limited, trading as Allied Security, on 12 October 2023, signing a casual individual employment agreement, in a case reported as Devi v Allied Investments Limited t/a Allied Security [2026] NZERA 208. By late 2023 she was working six days a week across Countdown supermarkets in the Wellington region, and from early 2024 she says her shifts settled into regular patterns at the same sites, running around 50 to 60 hours a week.

Devi argued that pattern had quietly turned her job permanent, so cutting off her shifts amounted to an unjustified dismissal. She pointed to a conversation in which she asked a manager about permanent shifts. According to her evidence, the manager said "yes, we will do something for you" or words to that effect.

The Authority looked past the label to the real nature of the relationship. The agreement's clause 4.0 read: "The Employee will be offered work as and when required, with no fixed or guaranteed hours on any day." Devi could accept or decline any shift, mostly picking her own through an app called Deputy, and Allied Security argued her hours varied week to week with no guarantee on either side. Kennedy-Martin agreed the work carried the hallmarks of casual employment and found the...

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