Changes to General Retail Award

From 1 July the General Retail Industry Award 2010 will allow the minimum engagement for a casual employee to be 1.5 hours, rather than the standard 3 hour shift minimum.

To meet the requirements you must:

• Be a full time secondary year student
• Engaged to work between 3pm and 6:30pm on a school day
• Both the employee and the parental guardian of the employee must agree to allow the employee to work the shorter shift period; and
• Employment for a longer period of three hours is not possible, either because of the operational requirements of the employer or the unavailability of the employee.

In all other circumstances or if a longer period of employment is possible, the three hour minimum will continue to apply.

We’re hopeful that this will mean an increase in the engagement of school aged workers for shorter periods after school.