As previously advised, members are now able to enrol for the JobKeeper payments. To assist eligible employers, the ATO has updated their guidance on eligibility and how to apply.

The ATO has also now confirmed that businesses seeking JobKeeper payments must enrol all eligible employees, provided employees consent to the enrolment. This means that members cannot selectively choose employees to nominate – it is ‘one in, all in’ for eligible employees.

As part of the nomination process, employers are required to provide each eligible employee with an employee nomination notice. The ATO has published this form, which can be downloaded here.

This notice is required for enrolment for the JobKeeper scheme and must be filled in by both the employer and the employee. Employers will need to fill in company details, while the employee will need to provide their details in addition to signing a declaration to confirm they consent to being nominated for the JobKeeper payments.

Two commonly asked questions

Several members have contact us with questions regarding the JobKeeper scheme. To assist our members, we thought it would be beneficial to clarify two commonly asked questions.

Can an employee’s leave balance fall below two weeks under the JobKeeper changes?

An employee’s leave balance can fall below two weeks where the request for annual leave comes from the employee.

The existing rules under the Fair Work Act enable an employer and an employee to reach an agreement in relation to taking annual leave. Where the request comes from the employee, and there is a genuine agreement, there are no restrictions on remaining leave balances.

This existing framework will not be changed by the temporary JobKeeper changes to the Act.

The important difference is that the JobKeeper changes will now expressly allow an employer to request the employee take a period of annual leave. Only in these cases must the annual leave balance not fall below two weeks.

To summarise, the two-week restriction on annual leave balances applies only where the request comes from the employer. It does not prevent employees requesting annual leave and their annual leave balance subsequently falling below two weeks. As always, we recommend that all employee leave requests be documented in writing.

If I stand down my employee under the JobKeeper provisions, do I pay superannuation?

The issue of making superannuation contributions comes up in the following scenarios:

• Employers are not obliged to make superannuation contributions to employees who are subject to a JobKeeper-enabling stand-down direction (i.e. employees’ working hours are reduced to zero).
• Where an employee is still working and is paid more than $1500 per fortnight, the employer’s superannuation obligations will not change. The employer will continue making superannuation contribution on the employee’s ordinary time earnings.
• Where an employee is still working and ordinarily receives a salary lower than $1500 in a fortnight, the employer will continue making superannuation contributions on the employee’s ordinary time earnings. However, the employer will not have to make superannuation contributions on the amount that is topped up to $1500 per fortnight by the JobKeeper Payment.