What Is the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS)?
If you employ casual workers in Australia, the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) is an ongoing legal obligation you can’t afford to miss. Miss the timing windows, and you’re exposed to Fair Work action, civil penalties, and the kind of paper trail that makes disputes harder to defend.
What is the CEIS?
The Casual Employment Information Statement is a document published by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). It must be given to casual employees, and sets out:
- The legal definition of a casual employee (updated 26 August 2024)
- How casual employees can notify their employer of their intention to move to permanent employment (the ‘employee choice pathway’)
- The grounds on which an employer can decline that request
- How disputes are handled through the Fair Work Commission
The CEIS exists because the definition of ‘casual’ in Australia changed significantly under the Closing Loopholes Act 2023, effective 26 August 2024. The old approach, where ‘casual’ was defined primarily by the employment contract, has been replaced by a ‘practical reality’ test. What matters now is the actual working relationship, not just what the contract says.
If someone works regular, predictable hours over a sustained period, they may no longer qualify as casual regardless of how they were hired.
Who needs to receive the CEIS?
Every casual employee. There are no exemptions by industry, company size, or role type.
All new casual employees must receive the CEIS before, or as soon as possible after, their start date. They must also receive it again at set intervals throughout their employment.
When do you need to issue it?
This is where most employers get caught out. The CEIS isn’t a one-time document.
For organisations with 15 or more employees:
- At the start of employment
- After 6 months
- After 12 months
- Every 12 months after that
For organisations with fewer than 15 employees:
- At the start of employment
- After 12 months
You must always provide the version of the CEIS that’s current at the time of issue, not the version you gave them previously. Fair Work updates it, so saving a static PDF and resending it is not compliant practice. Linking directly to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s page is a safer approach.
One practical note: if you employ the same casual more than once within a 12-month period, you don’t need to reissue within that window.
How do you deliver it?
You can give the CEIS:
- In person (printed copy)
- By email (as an attachment or a link to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s version)
- Via your company intranet, if the employee can access it easily
On the CheckWorkRights platform, casual employees receive a MyCheck request to review the current CEIS document in-platform, and confirm receipt with an explicit checkbox. That confirmation is stored against the exact version they saw, and provides you with a defensible audit trail. When Fair Work updates the document, the platform updates too and triggers a new acknowledgement.
CheckWorkRights applies a flat 6-month expiry cadence for all employers, which exceeds the legal minimum in every case.
What happens if you don’t issue it correctly?
Non-compliance is a contravention of the National Employment Standards, which means Fair Work Ombudsman enforcement applies. Consequences range from a compliance notice through to civil litigation.
Specific penalties include:
- An infringement notice: $1,980 for an individual, $9,900 for a company
- Civil penalties up to $13,320 per contravention for an individual, $66,600 for a company
- In serious cases, penalties can reach $93,900
Beyond the fines, failure to issue the CEIS weakens your position in any classification or conversion dispute. Courts and the Fair Work Commission take note of whether employees were properly informed of their rights.
How CheckWorkRights can help
Managing CEIS obligations across a large casual workforce is operationally complex. The timing windows are tied to individual start dates, the document version has to be current, and you need to keep records that hold up under scrutiny.
CheckWorkRights automates employee lifecycle compliance, including CEIS issuance, with configurable workflows that trigger at the right time for each employee. Our CheckIntelligence™ product can assign compliance tasks by role, employment type, or location so nothing falls through the gaps when you’re managing hundreds of casual workers across multiple sites.
If your workforce spans hospitality, retail, resources, or logistics (industries where casual labour is the norm and turnover is high) this kind of automation isn’t optional. It’s how you stay compliant without building a manual process that breaks the moment someone goes on leave.
Book a demo to learn more.
