I am still a little unsure how we will know for sure if he has enough hours. He has had three employers since being here and has requested the letters from them - they will state how many hours he has worked for them but how can we distinguish how many hours are regular time, as he has done a bit of overtime from time to time. also some weeks he didn't have 37.5 and others he had more than 37.5 - do they count each week individually or can you pool your hours. we would like to be definite before we send in the application.
It is true that CEC really has the salaried employee in mind and doesn't provide too much guidance for hourly employees. But what is clear is that one week of full-time employment is defined as "at least 37.5 hours." Doesn't matter how your employer defines it. A week of full time employment can be 37.5 hours, 40 hours, 80 hours - it's all just 1 week of full-time employment. Overtime is irrelevant. Any full-time week simply counts as 1 week. Count the weeks of full-time employment.
A week that is less than 37.5 hours is technically "part-time." For part-time work, you need to add up your part-time hours and divide by 37.5 to come up with the "full-time equivalent" number of weeks (You'll need a combined total 104 weeks within 3 years of the application date).
It'll depend on the Visa Officer whether or not you can get away with "pooling" your hours, it'll probably depend on what is stated in your Letters of Reference, etc. Others on here will have differences of opinion about this, because it is not explicit.
also does the time we send it in matter i.e.
Yes, it matters. You can only count employment experience acquired within 3 years of the application date.
So if you apply on June 1, 2012 (lock-in date is the date the application is RECEIVED at CIO-Sydney), you can only include experience back to June 1, 2009.