Why You Need to Start Planning NOW for Your Christmas Break
Hello and welcome to Episode 165 of the People Powered Business Podcast.
In today's episode we are looking at just one of the latest Industrial Relations updates – this one relates to our ability as employers to direct employees to take annual leave over a close down period – the most common of which for most businesses is over the Christmas and New Year period.
Let’s be honest, there is an absolute avalanche of changes rolling through from the Fair Work Commission, the Federal Government and a range of other legislative bodies, and many of the changes are getting a decent amount of media coverage. So changes like this one, which has much less public interest attached to it, can slide by without anyone realising.
Closing down our businesses over the Christmas and New Year has been common place in many, if not most, industries in Australia for decades. Sometimes this has been fuelled by industry norms, like the Building and Construction Industry where suppliers tend to shut down, causing a ripple effect across the industry. In other cases it’s the only way for owners of businesses, or families working together to get a true break together.
Since the inception of the Fair Work Act in 2009, almost all of the Modern Awards have had provisions in them which stipulate what we can and can’t do when it comes to directing employees to take annual leave during a Christmas shut down period.
However, 1 May 2023 saw changes to more than 70 Modern awards when it comes to these rules, and some of them many employers won’t really like.
Until now, most of us will have required employees to take accrued annual leave during a Christmas close down, and where they did not have enough leave accrued, they’d be required to take LWOP. As of now, for those 70+ awards, the direction to take LWOP just got a whole lot harder.
So in today’s episode we discuss what has always been in place (whether you realised it or not), what the changes are, and what you need to think about and consider now to make sure you’re compliant for your next shut down.
If you’d like to continue the conversation on this, please join us in the Facebook Group HR Support for Australia Businesses via this link:
