Casual, part-time or full-time: rostering under the Hospitality Award

Most venues end up with all three on the same roster: a few full-timers who open every day, a handful of part-timers with set shifts around uni or a second job, and a bigger pool of casuals filling the rest. The categories aren't just payroll labels. The Hospitality Award treats each one differently on the roster itself, and the part most managers get wrong isn't the pay rate. It's the paperwork a part-time employee is owed before their first shift, and it's worth sorting out properly rather than guessing.

I'm not a lawyer, and none of this is legal advice. The rules below come from the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 and the Restaurant Industry Award 2020, and I've linked the Fair Work source for each one. If you're setting up a roster for the first time or something here doesn't match your situation, check with the Fair Work Ombudsman or an employment adviser before you rely on it.

What the three categories actually mean

A full-time employee works an average of 38 ordinary hours a week. That's the whole definition, and it's the one nobody argues about.

A part-time employee works at least 8 and fewer than 38 ordinary hours a week, averaged over the roster cycle if the venue rosters in cycles, and their hours have to be reasonably predictable. The Award doesn't leave that last part to interpretation. At the time you take someone on as part-time, you have to agree with them in writing on their guaranteed hours each week (or over the roster cycle) and the days and times they're available to work those hours. Any later change to those guaranteed hours needs the employee's written consent too, not just a verbal "are you right to pick up an extra shift."

A casual employee has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work: you offer a shift, they can take it or knock it back, and neither side is promising the next one. Within a shift, a casual can be rostered for a maximum of 12 hours, and across a week, a maximum of 38 hours, or an average of 38 over the roster cycle if there is one (up to 4 weeks). Every time a casual is called in, they're owed at least 2 consecutive hours of work, even if the job only takes 40 minutes.

Both awards define the three categories the same way. Where they differ is which venues they cover, not how the rostering rules work once you know which one applies.

Which award applies to your venue

The Hospitality Award covers pubs, bars and taverns that mainly serve alcohol, plus accommodation, catering and function venues. The Restaurant Award covers restaurants and cafés and other venues that mainly serve food for customers to eat on the premises. A café attached to a hotel can sit under the Hospitality Award instead, so check your own setup rather than assuming from the word "café" or "bar" in your name. Once you know which award covers the venue, everything above about casual, part-time and full-time hours applies the same way under either one.

A regular casual roster is a legal question, not just a scheduling one

Since 26 August 2024, the Fair Work Act has defined a casual employee by what actually happens at work, not by what the contract says. A string of factors decides it: whether you genuinely offer and withhold shifts week to week, whether the person can and does turn shifts down, and whether they're working the same pattern a full-time or part-time employee in the same role would work. Roster someone for the same three shifts every week for six months, and the paperwork calling them casual starts to matter less than the pattern on the roster.

That matters because of what changed alongside it. From 26 February 2025 (26 August 2025 for small business employers), eligible casuals can use the employee choice pathway to tell their employer in writing that they want to move to full-time or part-time work, and an employer can only refuse on specific grounds set out in the Act. It replaced the old casual conversion rules. The practical takeaway for a roster isn't to avoid giving anyone steady hours. It's to call a steady pattern what it is, and have the part-time paperwork ready when someone's hours settle into one.

Changing a published roster

Once a full-time or part-time employee's roster is set, both awards let you change it by mutual agreement at any time, or unilaterally by giving the employee 7 days' notice. There's no equivalent notice period written into either award for changing a casual's upcoming shifts, because a casual's roster is only ever an offer in the first place. Both awards also carry a consultation clause: before changing someone's regular roster or ordinary hours, other than for a role where the hours are already irregular or unpredictable, you have to tell the employee (and their representative, if they have one) what's proposed and genuinely consider what they say about how it affects them, including family and caring responsibilities. A text the night before doesn't meet that bar for a standing roster change, even if it's enough notice for a one-off.

Keeping all three straight on one roster

None of this means you need separate systems for separate people. It means being deliberate about three things as you build the week's roster.

• Know who's guaranteed what. Full-timers are rostered to 38 hours most weeks. Part-timers have a guaranteed number in writing, and you can't quietly roster them under it. Casuals have no guarantee at all, which is the whole point of offering them a shift rather than assigning one.
• Watch for a casual turning into a pattern. If the same casual has worked the same days for months, that's worth a conversation about part-time hours before the Fair Work Commission has to decide it for you.
• Treat a published roster for permanent staff as something you change on notice, not on a whim. Casuals can flex week to week. Your full-timers and part-timers are relying on the hours you agreed to.

This is the kind of thing we built Kaslu Work around. Staff set their availability once, and it carries into the roster every week, so a part-timer's agreed days aren't something a manager has to remember separately from the spreadsheet. Each section of the venue shows who's rostered and for how long, so a casual quietly drifting into a full week of regular shifts is visible on the roster itself, not just something you notice three months later when it's a problem. What it doesn't do is decide anyone's employment category for you, or work out their pay. That's still a conversation with your staff and, where it's not obvious, with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

If you're putting a roster together this week, our free roster template lays shifts out by section the way most venues actually run. And if you want to see how we're building rostering for pubs, restaurants and cafés that mix casual, part-time and full-time staff on the same roster, the waitlist for early access is on the home page.