QLD Employee given formal notice due to COVID-19

[LauraMae]

Hi all,

I work in the office for an essential services company - a Trades business who employ over 50 staff. We all got given our "formal notice" via letter due to the uncertainty with Covid-19 (despite March being a record month in terms of turnover) with the appropriate amount of notice given to us.

The letter states "Please consider this your formal notice. With reference to your employment contract, your notice period is four weeks. We will endeavour to keep you working for as long as possible beyond your notice period, therefore please continue to work as if business is usual unless advised otherwise."

A bunch of us are super confused as to what happens next. What happens when the four weeks is up? Is that instant dismissal, is it redundancy? Can my employer re-issue me with a new contract, or does everything continue as normal? Nothing in the letter states dismissal or redundancy and HR have been terrible at communicating anything.

Because notice has been given, can I essentially leave at any point? Can they get rid of me at any point from the four weeks?

Thanks all for reading, Laura-Mae

 

[Atticus]

Hopefully someone can come along here & offer something specific ......

This is when being a member of a union can sometimes help..... Perhaps you could call your industry specific union... they may offer some advice... Otherwise call fair work Australia & explain what is happening, see what advice they can offer

 

[Rod]

Please consider this your formal notice.

Formal notice of what? Redundancy, dismissal, JobKeeper direction, Easter bunny is late?

Is there more to the letter you haven't posted?

Seriously, from a legal perspective this employer does not appear to know what they are doing. Talk to the owner/HR/admin person in the first instance and suggest they get proper legal advice regarding employment law.

If they take further action then you will likely need to get your own legal advice.

 

[LauraMae]

That's literally it... "Please consider this your formal notice. With reference to your employment contract, your notice period is four weeks. We will endeavour to keep you working for as long as possible beyond your notice period, therefore please continue to work as if business is usual unless advised otherwise. "

The next paragraph is:

"With the aim to not compromise the safe operation of the business and keep our team employed, if our workload dramatically decreases or the company is not operational beyond your notice period we will be asking team members to:
- take unpaid leave
- reduce your working hours to part time
- take annual leave 1-2 days per week
-commence a casual employment arrangement"

Then a phone number for lifeline and some blurb about government employment support initiatives.

The only other correspondence we've had is an email from a Director saying "As a preventative measure, this afternoon all employees will receive communications that they are receiving their notice periods. " Which is when we received the letter.

HR aren't being very helpful in decoding their cryptic letters...

 

[Rod]

*Sighs (at employer letter)

1. What is your preference? Redundancy, JobKeeper, retain job, other?
2. Are you paid in excess of the $1,500 gross / ft available under job keeper?
3. Is your employer aware of the JobKeeper scheme and what is available?
4. Does your employer know that unpaid stand-downs are still potentially illegal? They need to properly follow the new JobKeeper processes and based on the letter you posted, it looks like they are not following the correct process.
5. JobKeeper does not give the employer open slather to do what they like. They have opened themselves up to unfair dismissal claims.

Employer needs to get proper employment law advice.

I get it, your employer is nervous and worried they won't stay in business. But that does not give them the right to use and abuse employees.

 

[LauraMae]

Totally agree and thank you for your input and response.

1. What is your preference? Redundancy, JobKeeper, retain job, other? - First instance, retain. Redundancy second (best option financially for me).
2. Are you paid in excess of the $1,500 gross / ft available under job keeper? - Yes
3. Is your employer aware of the JobKeeper scheme and what is available? - yes and I believe they are only putting some employees through it, not all.
4. Does your employer know that unpaid stand-downs are still potentially illegal? They need to properly follow the new JobKeeper processes and based on the letter you posted, it looks like they are not following the correct process. - I agree, sounds like they are panicking and unsure what to do... the letter simply doesn't make sense. Thank you for your input, good to get a second opinion and to know I can read poorly worded English from my company ha.
5. JobKeeper does not give the employer open slather to do what they like. They have opened themselves up to unfair dismissal claims. - Time will tell...!

 

[Rod]

and FYI, the employer doesn't get to pick and choose which employees participate. The employee decides.