Rad-bookkeeping-ASIC

Coronavirus: Todays Top Tips

In this ever changing situation 3 quick tips that may help answer some of your questions re your employees

1. “Non-essential activity” is the key phrase from the government’s latest orders.

What the state government is trying to stop are those who are in the business of having the public congregating together in confined spaces, for non-essential purposes, (not hospitals or grocery stores, for example).

As such affected industries/businesses are at this point:

Pubs, clubs, nightclubs, casino, and licensed venues in hotels and pubs. Gyms, indoor sporting venues, places of worship, cinemas and entertainment venues.
Restaurants and cafes will only be allowed to provide home delivery or takeaway services.

Non essential businesses (other than those listed above) are to carry on as usual, working from home, practicing social distancing and focus on hygiene.

2. Stand Down

If for example your business is in the list above, the government has said you need to close your doors – this would likely trigger a stand down (or partial stand down).

Likewise if there was a case of COV-ID 19 in your store, and when this was reported you were told you close your doors – you would likely trigger a stand down (or partial stand down).

If you are not in either of these situations, a stand down may apply – but you would need to get further advice on a case by case basis.  Feel free to call us and we can put you in touch with our HR Specialist to determine if that is the case 

Of course, as things change the list of businesses on this list may well change also.

3.  Minimising Wages

As a customer/client (and with it income) decreases, a lot of businesses are looking at ways to reduce their wages bill.   We advise that you talk to your team about the issues at hand and work with them to agree to a solution.

Some options/ideas for suggestions for your team are:

  • Less days – from 5 to 4 days a week, for example
  • Shorter days – from 7.6 hours to 4 or 5 hours a day
  • Extended unpaid leave

We hope you can explore these and other options with your team before looking at things like redundancies if you fall into the category over 15 employees..  

We appreciate the severity and impact on every business at this point and ask that you call us if you are hesitant around what to do or not sure how to execute any process properly.   

Rad Bookkeeping are working as normal, but it may take a bit longer than usual to return a call or email due to the high volume of calls we are understandably experiencing. 

Please note this information is advisory in nature only and subject to change given the current climate.

Take care everyone, we are thinking of you all at this terribly uncertain time.