Updated ATO Guidance on JobKeeper Extension
On 14 August the government announced further changes to the JobKeeper Payment:
This newsletter includes a range of information for businesses and individuals, including:
Extension of time to meet pay conditions for new eligible employees
New nomination form & dates for new employee nomination
Personal/Carer's Leave accrual for part-time employees
Extension of time to meet pay conditions for new eligible employees.
For the fortnights commencing on 3 August 2020 and 17 August 2020, employers have until 31 August 2020 to meet the wage condition for all new eligible employees included in the Jobkeeper scheme under the 1 July eligibility test.
New nomination form & dates for new employee nomination.
To claim JobKeeper payments for the August JobKeeper fortnights, including for new eligible employees included in the Jobkeeper scheme under the 1 July eligibility test, you must enrol for JobKeeper by 31 August.
Nomination forms for new employees must be provided to employees within 7 days of enrolment (for new employees to be claimed in fortnight 10, 3 August – 16 August, this is required by 23 August 2020).
Personal/carer's leave accrual for part-time employees.
The High Court overruled the contentious ruling of the Full Federal Court finding employees are entitled to 10 ‘notional days’ of personal leave a year by reference to their ordinary working hours.
Under the High Court's judgment, part-time employees are entitled to 10 days’ leave, however, these are ‘notional days’ and the number of hours in each day of leave is to be calculated on a pro-rata basis depending on how many hours the part-timer works in a fortnight.
The duration of a 'day' is determined by identifying 1/10th of an employee's ordinary hours over a 2 week period.
Practically speaking, this is a return to the accrual of leave on an hourly basis and the taking of leave, by drawing down from the employee’s pool of accrued paid personal leave on an hourly basis.
For example - For a part-time employee working 20 hours a week and 40 hours a fortnight, they would accrue based on an entitlement to a 4-hour ‘notional day’, as opposed to 7.6 hours. Over the course of a year, the part-time employee would accrue 40 hours of leave or 10 x 4-hour notional days.
This judgement ensures that part-time employees, who do not work the same load as full-time employees, access pro-rata hours and not the same (or even more) hours as full-time employees.
For shift workers working varied patterns of work across fortnights or months, the Court has said employers can determine the value of ‘a day’ by identifying 1/26th of the employee’s ordinary hours over the course of a whole year. This enables employers to ignore weekly or monthly variations in rosters and assess the total hours of work as a whole.