Casual Employee

pwilliamson

Are there specific rules/laws governing the hiring of casual employees in Virginia?  Could someone direct me to any documentation?

 Thank you, Patti

TXHRGuy

I don't have any state specific information.

There is a common misconception that "casual labor" can be paid in cash with no payroll tax obligation.  However, you still have to collect and pay payroll taxes. 

pwilliamson

We plan on putting them on our payroll - I just didn't know if there were any rules regarding regarding how many hours they can work in a year or if we needed to set time parameters for their employment.

TXHRGuy

Anything like that would be state-specific.  In general, because the employer controls scheduling, a person on your payroll with few or irregular hours is just a person on your payroll with few or irregular hours and there's nothing special you need to know, say, or do.  However, I believe California has a minimum shift length, but I don't know of another state with anything like that,

HRforME

Also please remember that specific benefit plans will have specific parameters and they may not be the same as your definiton of "casual employee" unless they were written that way. The one that often is most important is the 401k plan, if you have one. They will define eligibility.

Also there are certain laws where it will come into play  (for example, any service is used to calculate eligibility for FMLA, it does NOT have the be consecutive).

This is why many companies have limits on how long a "casual" or "temp" employee can work before either being terminated or hired for a "permanent" position.