What Lockdown 2.0 means for regional business
Rapid changes to what your business can and can’t do are happening at a frenetic pace and your business has little time to adapt before the changes become law. In this blog I summarise what regional business need to know to comply with stage 3 restrictions from 6 August 2020:
- Stage 3 restrictions return until 13 September 2020 and mean that
- Restaurants and cafes can only provide delivery and takeaway.
- Beauty, hairdressers and personal services will close.
- Entertainment and cultural venues will close.
- Employers can consider:
- standing down employees if there is no work available because of a stoppage of work due to the current restrictions. You should seek advice before standing down employees because other options, such as staff taking leave or working form home, may be viable.
- asking some award covered employees to take annual leave. Employees can also ask for annual leave at half pay and any agreement needs be documented between employer and employee.
- Commercial leases:
- Tenants can request rent relief again if they need to under the Commercial Tenancy regulations. A landlord needs to consider every rent relief request during the JobKeeper program.
- Employees covered by an award can take up to 14 days unpaid pandemic leave rather than use annual or sick leave. Employers can seek evidence, such as a doctor's certificate, when granting the request.
- Financial support has been offered:
- Regional businesses can apply for a $5,000 grant to support their business. More information is on the Business Victoria website.
- For employees, a $1500 payment is available to employees that don’t have any sick leave left if they have to take leave sick leave due to Covid19. Employees will be eligible if they are not receiving Jobseeker or Jobkeeper. Further details are to be announced and employees can contact 180-22-66.
At OFRM our business lawyers can assist your business to navigate through the dos and don’ts of the current restrictions on your business. Contact Siobhan Liston on 03 5445 1060 and [Lachlan Edwards] on (https://ofrm.com.au/our-team/siobhan-liston) on 0427 916 442.