As a matter of common law, each occasion a casual employee works is a separate engagement pursuant to a separate contract of employment. Casual employees may be engaged from week to week, day to day, shift to shift, or for any other agreed short period, and may transition between periods of intermittent and regular engagements without terminating their overall employment relationship.

Each occasion that a casual employee works is viewed as a separate engagement pursuant to a separate contract of employment under common law, though casual employees may transition between periods of intermittent and regular systematic engagements.

Section 384(2) draws a distinction between 'period of service' and 'period of employment', and a single 'period of employment' may be comprised of multiple contiguous 'periods of service', some of which count toward the employee's period of employment where s.384(2)(a)(i) and (ii) are met.

Continuous service by a casual employee with an established sequence of engagements is broken only when the employer or employee makes clear by words or actions that there will be no further engagements; gaps between individual engagements should not be treated as interrupting the period of continuous employment, and absences due to leave, illness or injury do not break continuity.

Gaps in time between casual contracts do not necessarily break service because it is the employment relationship and not the contract that is assessed for continuity, provided the employee had reasonable expectation of continuing employment.

Casual employment does not start and end with each engagement as understood in the common law; a series of contiguous periods of service may count towards a single period of employment with that employer. Continuous service by a casual employee is broken only when the employer or employee make it clear by words or actions that there will be no further engagements.

Continuous service by a casual employee who has an established sequence of engagements with an employer is broken only when the employer or employee makes it clear by words or actions that there will be no further engagements. Gaps between individual engagements in a sequence should not interrupt the employee's period of continuous service.

A casual employee may transition between periods of intermittent and regular/systematic engagements. Section 384 does not assume each casual engagement is a separate contract; rather, it allows multiple contiguous periods of service to count towards a single period of employment if regularity and expectation of continuing employment are met. Continuous service is not broken by periods of leave or illness/injury absence.

Section 384 is concerned with how an employee's period of employment is calculated for purposes of s.382(a), drawing a distinction between 'period of service' and 'period of employment'. A period of continuous service can be made up of contiguous periods of service, some counting towards period of employment only if requirements in s.384(2)(a)(i) and (ii) are met.

The period of continuous service is identified in accordance with s.384(1), and periods of service which do not meet the requirements of s.384(2)(a) do not count toward continuous service and must be deducted; if the resultant amount is less than the minimum employment period, the jurisdictional prerequisite has not been met.

Continuous service by a casual employee who has an established sequence of engagements with an employer is only broken when the employer or the employee make it clear to the other party, by words or actions that there will be no further engagements.

Although as a matter of contract each occasion a casual employee is engaged is a separate contract of employment, the task in examining casual employment is to examine the period of service rather than the period of employment.