Collecting Job Keeper means you are committing to your employment

I was recently asked for some advice by Liam, a candidate who is on job keeper, which led me to thinking about a potential gap in managing employee expectations for businesses who have any staff on Job Keeper. 

 

Liam’s situation is; His employer was eligible for Job Keeper and a decrease in business activity meant several staff members (including Liam) had been put on Job Keeper, however they were not required to work. Essentially, they were stood down, but the company had chosen to ‘keep’ their jobs via the Job Keeper support program. As Liam wasn’t working as such, he commenced looking for new employment opportunities. 

 

A few weeks passed and his employer contacted him, asking him to return to the office. They had work for him due to a staff member leaving, it was communicated that he would pick up that members workload. Liam wasn’t prepared for this phone call and had expected he would just continue not working and receiving Job Keeper until the government cut it off or he found another job. The phone call caught him off guard, he wasn’t sure of his rights and felt he wanted to continue with his search for employment, and not return to the office.   

 

He reached out asking if his company’s expectation was fair and reasonable considering he was on Job Keeper. My answer was YES! Is it called Job keeper for a reason – You keep your job! I pretty much told him that he has a choice, he can say no to his employer and quit, or get himself back to the office, quick smart!!   

 

I started hearing more rumbles of this scenario, even my local café owner had a similar story. She has staff on Job Keeper, but when she was rostering them for shifts, she found it hard to get any commitment from them to work. Times were already tough and now her staff weren’t willing to work but happy to remain on Job Keeper. How can the business go on without any staff to carry out the work? Tearing her hair out and frustrated all she wanted to say to her staff ‘you either take a shift, or you quit’. But wasn’t sure if she could do that. Or was it that her staff did not understand how Job Keeper works?  

 

She was regretting claiming Job Keeper  – she thought she was doing the right thing for her staff and for her business, but maybe not?  The battle to get some staff members to turn up to work has completely blindsided her and the sheer disregard that they have had their jobs ‘kept’ and are being paid (in some cases more) has left her reeling. It is called job keeper for a reason, but she really felt it wasn’t working…. 

 

There have been many messages, updates, revisions and extensions so to be fair, communications are a tad jumbled. So, let’s get it straight, Job Keeper is not Job Seeker! Therefore, any employee on Job Keeper is still employed and is required to meet their conditions of employment. This includes being asked to return to the workplace and or return to normal hours. Employers are required by the government to declare each month what staff they are claiming for Job Keeper. There is no expectation for that claim to be made each month which means if an employee is choosing not to work, the employer can choose not to claim Job Keeper on their behalf.    

 

The choice lies with the employee, if they choose not to work then essentially, they are choosing not to be employed.