The Christmas Shutdown may be changing
If you are thinking of a Christmas shutdown for your business in December 2022 / January 2023, you need to be aware of this.
In previous years many employers have been able to use the Stand Down provisions under various awards to close their business over the Christmas New Year period. And for the period the business is closed, to make the employee take annual leave. Or if they don’t have enough annual leave, they employee could be forced to take unpaid leave.
But the ability to force employees with insufficient annual leave to take unpaid leave may be changing.
Recently, as part of a 4 yearly review of modern awards, the shutdown provisions were considered.
In a split decision, the majority effectively proposed to vary shut down provisions so that whilst employers could enact a shut down period, there was no ability to force staff to take unpaid leave during the shutdown period.
In effect, if the employee did not have enough annual leave to cover the shut down period, the employee would either need to be paid annual leave in advance, or they get paid as if they were actually working.
Now this review has not yet been reflected in awards, but if it does, this could impact your business in several ways.
Firstly will be the cash flow impact. You can no longer assume that some staff will be on unpaid leave over the Christmas shutdown period and you have a saving in cash. Your weekly / fortnightly wages bill will not change.
The next impact will be on leave approvals. You may want to reconsider what leave you approve during the year, knowing that staff will need to have some leave over the shut down period, otherwise you may be paying for leave in advance.
If you are planning to have a Christmas shutdown this year, you may want to consider how these changes may impact you now.
If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, or help with this grant contact me below
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