Shutdown periods

From 1 May 2023, many awards have been updated to implements new rules for taking annual leave during shutdown periods. Previous versions of the awards did not include any specific amount of notice employers were required to provide employees.

In summary, the new rules include the following:

· employers may require employees to take paid annual leave during a temporary shutdown

· employers must provide at least 28 days’ written notice of the temporary shutdown period to all impacted employees

· the requirement to take annual leave must be reasonable

· the notice period can be reduced through an agreement between the employer and the majority of impacted employees

· an employee who doesn’t have enough paid annual leave to cover the whole period can form an agreement with their employer for other options for the days not covered, such as:

o    using accrued time off

o    annual leave in advance, or

o    leave without pay.

These new rules apply to employees and employers covered by one of the affected awards.

Next steps

Given such changes, employers should review current employment contracts and policies to ensure that such contain provision for any applicable updates to shutdown periods.

If you require assistance in reviewing your employment contracts or policies please contact Hart & Co today.