Thinking of a 2024 Christmas shutdown for your business – then you need to read this

If you are thinking of a 2024 Christmas shutdown for your business in December 2024 / January 2025, you need to be aware of the rules around this.

Firstly you must give your staff a minimum of 28 days written notice of the temporary shutdown period.  So this notice is now becoming time critical now that we are in late November.

Secondly, as long as the temporary shutdown is reasonable, and staff have sufficient annual leave, you can direct your staff to take accrued annual leave during the temporary shutdown period.

But, if the staff member has insufficient leave to cover the period of the temporary shutdown, you can no longer force them take unpaid leave or annual leave in advance.  You need to get a written agreement from the employee that they will take leave without pay, or to take annual leave in advance.

If they don’t agree, then you need to pay them as if they were working even if the business is closed.  Not a great outcome.

For this reason, if you are a business that is planning to have a temporary shutdown at Christmas (or at any other time), it is important that you properly manage staff annual leave during the year so they have sufficient leave to cover the shutdown period.

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

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