[00:00:10] My name is Clint Indrele, managing director of OnDemand HR. Today, I’m going to do a quick video update for our clients and our referrers on the Corona virus and how that may impact on the economy, employment outcomes and certain things that businesses should be thinking about in the near future.

[00:00:28] So obviously, we’re still in the early stages of this in Australia. But the reality is that in a short time, the numbers in other countries were also very small and increased quite quickly. And for businesses in Australia may well start thinking about how this might affect your organisation and what strategies you might want to implement to overcome what might be ahead of us.

[00:00:46] So here’s some of the options that are available to business. So first of all, working from home arrangements, certainly if employees are potentially been traveling and they’ve returned to the country, you may want to consider whether or not it’s appropriate for them to be working from home. Depending upon how large your organisation is, there may come a point in which you may consider that as a more widespread strategy so that’s the first thing you might want to look at. I guess the challenge with something like that is how long should an arrangement like that be going for and what are the control measures you can have around things like that.

[00:01:20] The second thing you may want to look at as well is certainly what types of hours you’re expecting from them, what types of work volume, what types of timekeeping arrangements are necessary, and any other factors that are relevant to the business. So then we have long service leave is another strategy in New South Wales. Certainly you can direct employees take all of their long service leave in other states. There is also provision in the long service leave act for certain things like that to be taken. Annual leave, there is an ability for employers to direct annual leave in some circumstances. There is also obviously the ability for employers to agree on annual leave being taken at any time between employee and employer. So that’s another ability for businesses to look at in these particular times. And, if business is slow and if times are tough for the business, then certainly reducing leave liabilities in 2020 might be a very good idea to get those things off your balance sheet. We go on to then the stand down provisions of the Fair Work Act. Now, this is obviously the worst case scenario where employees don’t have leave or not enough leave to take time off over a period of time. And the business is not in a position to continue to trade. There is provisions in Section 524 of the Act which allow for an employer to stand down employees without pay, if there is a stoppage of work for which the employer cannot be held reasonably responsible. So in order to exercise that right, it depends on the circumstances. Certainly that’s something you’ll need to consider. And furthermore, if there was a considerable risk to work health and safety, then potentially this may be something you may have to use to stop work and to stop the potential risk of obviously work, health and safety issues in your workplace. We then have the obvious, more extreme scenario of a more permanent reduction in business, reduction in headcount, and that comes down to ultimately redundancies. Some businesses may be adversely affected by the virus, by the economy, or by the impacts of what this has in their supply chain or various other aspects of their business. So in order to reduce numbers, it isn’t that straightforward. Most of the time we’ll need to observe a consultation period. You’ll need to consider alternative employment for employees who may be out of a job as a result of this. Need to provide information about the circumstances. And if there are requirements in relation to payments for redundancy pay and notice, you’ll obviously also need to meet those requirements as well. And that typically will apply to any business with 15 or more employees and some businesses under 15 employees. So that’s just a quick wrap up of ultimately what the options are, therefore, in terms of dealing with this Corona virus and dealing with some of the economic constraints from a business perspective.

[00:04:15] Once again, my name’s Clint Indrele from OnDemand HR I am the managing director. Give us a call if you want to talk about through some of your options and some of things that your business may be considering in this upcoming period. Thank you.