On 1 September, legislation to extend the JobKeeper scheme passed Parliament. As part of this, the JobKeeper provisions in the Fair Work Act were also extended with some changes.

The extended provisions take effect from 28 September 2020 and the changed rules will be as follows:

• Employers can issue a JobKeeper-enabling stand down direction to an employee for whom they previously received a JobKeeper payment for to reduce that employee’s ordinary hours to a minimum of 60 per cent of the employee’s ordinary hours as they were at 1 March 2020, provided the relevant criteria for issuing the directions are met. The 60 per cent threshold does not apply to casuals.
• Such a direction cannot result in the employee working less than two consecutive hours in a day.

These employers must also give a longer period of notice before giving a JobKeeper-enabling direction – seven days rather than three days, and have expanded consultation requirements.

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