Dear PMSL:
What is the difference between a casual employee and a part-time employee?

PMSL's Response:
“Casual” employees are employed on an intermittent or irregular basis. They would be among those workers who normally present themselves at a company looking for work and are normally taken on subject to daily fluctuations in work load.  An example would be a worker on the docks or on a construction site who may be given work on any one day, depending on how many vessels are in, or what materials need unloading on site.  They may be employed on that basis on and of f over an indeterminate period of time – sometimes for years, but their employment is never certain and is dependent on the availability of work.

Casual employees are excluded from coverage under the Severance Payments Act, the Maternity Protection Act, certain aspects of Workmen’s’ Compensation and other legislation. If such employees work continuously without gaps, however, they are not casual, but permanent employees and entitled to all the benefits the law provides to that category.

A “part-time” employee is employed on a regular and continuous basis for a specific number of hours a day or a week and this is made known to the employee at the time they are employed. Part-time employment can be either temporary or permanent. Where it is permanent (a ‘rule of thumb’ is that anyone employed for more than 180 days a year can be considered permanent), all the relevant laws pertaining to permanent employment apply. Where they are employed on a temporary basis their entitlement to benefits under the law will depend on the length of the temporary period for which they are employed as well as the nature of the employment itself.