NSW Business Support July 2021
Hello, Andrew Koleda from On Demand HR here with an important update regarding a newly announced business support package for businesses impact by the recent Covid related lockdowns in NSW.
The details of the package have yet to be released so for all of our clients, associate members and guests we encourage you to reach out to On Demand HR via our website for advice regarding your specific circumstances.
What we can say is that support package is a joint initiative between the Federal and NSW Government, and differs from the JobKeeper package as it is a direct monetary support for businesses to subsidise their payrolls, and is not required to be passed on to their employees as was the case with JobKeeper. There is a separate support package provided for employees by the Federal Government of up to $600 per week which employees can apply directly.
For eligible NSW businesses, the support package will be available from week 4 of the NSW lockdown. Eligibility criteria includes:
- A decline in turnover by 30% compared to an equivalent two-week period in 2019
- Eligible entities will receive 40% of their weekly payroll with a minimum of $1500 and to a maximum of $10,000
- Maintaining full time, part time and long term casual staffing levels as of 13 July 2021
Share the HR or workplace relations challenge facing your business and one of our experienced consultants will be in touch within 24 hours with a strategic action plan or discover the best strategy yourself by accessing out free online training library.
Transcript
The business support package is going to be administered by Services NSW so we will be looking to them for the detail regarding the package. But some questions we are already asking internally are:
- What does an equivalent 2-week period mean? Can businesses make a self determination as to which two-week period best suits their eligibility requirements?
- How will fortnightly or monthly payroll businesses be managed to equate to the weekly support package?
- How will performance based terminations be accounted for? Is this creating an incentive to keep an underperforming staff member employed during the lockdown?
- What if an incident of serious and wilful misconduct occurs?
- Will businesses delay terminations to maintain employee numbers and eligibility?
- What about redundancy processes that were already underway prior to the support announcements?
From On Demand HR’s perspective there are a lot of unanswered questions we will be looking to answer once the detailed information of the support package is released. However, if our experience in helping our clients through JobKeeper has taught us anything, it’s that every business is different and as a result, if you require advice regarding your specific situation, we encourage you to reach out to On Demand HR via our website or by sending an email to advice@ondemandhr.com.au. We will continue to work to support SME’s through these challenging times with practical advice, based on achieving good business outcomes delivering certainty, confidence and results.
Stay tuned for more updates on this topic in the coming days.
