Are you closing your business down over Christmas and New Year?

Many businesses choose to have a close down at some point during the year and often it is over the Christmas and New Year period.

We recommend that businesses should start thinking of whether they should implement a forced closure at the end of the year as means to provide a period of rest and relaxation for their employees and as a means to recharge them for the new year.

A business closure will also serve as a useful opportunity to reduce annual leave liabilities within the business that may have increased as a direct result of employees cancelling their holidays and annual leave requests during the last two years due to the pandemic.

Information on directing employees to use their annual leave during a shutdown can be found in a Modern Award or registered Agreement but generally the rule of thumb is to provide at last four weeks’ notice to employees that this will take place.

It is also important to consider the length of this shutdown and also consider if there is a need for some employees to still remain as part of a skeletal team to ensure client/customer needs are met?