Employment Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Employment Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Jobkeeper Payments) Amendment Act 2020 (Act No 81 of 2020) and the Fair Work Amendment (Jobkeeper Payments) Regulations 2020.

Act 81 of 2020

Schedule 1 to the Act extends the current time limit on payment rules authorised by the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act 2020. This amendment facilitates the JobKeeper scheme being extended to 28 March 2021. Schedule 1 also amends the tax secrecy provisions in the TAA to allow protected information relating to the JobKeeper scheme to be disclosed to an Australian government agency for the purposes of the administration of an Australian law. Such disclosures can only be made for a purpose relating to the Coronavirus.

Schedule 2 to the Act supports the extended operation of the JobKeeper scheme for a further temporary period by providing employers with continued flexibility to respond to the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic while also assisting employees to remain in employment and connected to their workplaces.

Fair Work Amendment (Jobkeeper Payments) Regulations 2020

This instrument amends the Fair Work Regulations 2009 to support the extension of the temporary workplace flexibilities in the Fair Work Act 2009 that complement the JobKeeper payment scheme by ensuring that the 10% decline in turnover test set out in section 789 continues to be aligned with the decline in turnover test set out in the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits Rules 2020), and providing for a method of determining the ‘ordinary hours’ of particular classes of employees relevant to a legacy employer issuing a JobKeeper enabling stand down direction under section 789GJA.

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Employment Service current to 24 September 2020. (Note: Subscription required).

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