Preparing for a Business Shutdown

A shutdown is when a business temporarily closes, most commonly around Christmas and New Year. Information about shutdowns can be found in Modern Awards and registered agreements.

Whilst most Awards will have similar clauses relating to a shutdown, if your business is governed by multiple Awards, we encourage you to review the shutdown clauses in all of them.

Information in Awards will determine

-              The number of days/months written notice of a temporary shutdown period if the employer intends to shut down all or part of its operations for the purpose of allowing annual leave

-              Whether the employer may direct employees to take a period of paid annual leave if they have an accrued entitlement (and if it is reasonable the employee must take the paid annual leave in accordance with the direction)

-              Possibility of taking annual leave in advance (but only if the agreement is in writing) – NB: each award has a template you can use to action this. It is highly recommended that the letter is actioned because if the employee leaves the business prior to having a positive leave balance, you can then recoup the costs of the annual leave taken.

-              Information about the taking of Leave without Pay.