Severe weather: stand down

If your practice has been affected by the recent and continuing inclement weather conditions, you may need to stand down members of your team as a result. 

What does it mean when you stand down an employee? A stand down should not be confused with a shut down as they are used for different reasons and affect certain entitlements under the Fair Work Act differently.

Stand down
A stand down occurs when an employer temporarily directs an employee to stop working. This usually happens due to unforeseen circumstances. The stand down provisions only apply when stand down is not covered in an employment agreement. 

Reasons outside the employer’s control include things like:

• equipment breakdown
• industrial action
• a complete stoppage of work because of a government shutdown, or
• severe and inclement weather.

A stand down is initiated by the employer and may affect multiple employees. During a stand down, employees:

• are not performing any work
• do not receive payment (unless their contract states otherwise)
• remains employed during this period

Shut down
A shut down is when a business chooses to temporarily close all or part of a business for a particular period such as Christmas and New Year. During a shutdown, employees can be directed to take annual leave if:

• their award or employment agreement allows it, or
• they aren’t covered by an award or agreement. 

There should always be a clause in the employment agreements which speaks to designated periods of practice shut down. For example:  

“The practice may require you to take annual leave during a designated period of operational shutdown. Where you do not have sufficient annual leave to cover a period of shutdown, you agree that the leave will be unpaid, or you may be directed to take annual leave in advance, where reasonable. The practice will provide you with at least four weeks’ notice of any period of shut down.“

In the event you and your team have been affected by recent weather events, there is support. The Australian and Queensland Governments have extended disaster assistance to North Queenslanders affected by the flooding in the region.

Personal hardship assistance scheme

• Emergency hardship assistance grants – $180 per person, up to $900 for a family of five or more to purchase immediate essentials like food, clothing and medicine.
• Essential services hardship assistance – $150 per person, up to $750 for a family of five or more to assist with immediate needs following the loss of essential services at home for more than five consecutive days.
• Essential household contents grants – up to $1,765 for individuals and up to $5,300 for couples or families to replace destroyed essential household contents such as bed linen and white goods.
• Structural assistance grants – up to $80,000 for uninsured, income-tested owner-occupiers towards the repair or replacement of a disaster damaged dwelling to return it to a safe and habitable condition.

Essential services safety and reconnection scheme 

• Income-tested grants to help uninsured residents reconnect damaged services like electricity, gas, water or sewerage. Up to $5,000 per household.

These can be applied for via www.qld.gov.au/disasterhelp or by calling the Queensland Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349.

If you are a small practice the following site will be of benefit to you as an employer and your employees. It explains how to manage such events and what support there is for your team.

Please reach out to the Workplace Relations Team if you have any questions relating to anything in the above article. We have put together a very useful FAQ in relation to natural disasters and emergency that you may benefit from if needed. Contact us on 07 3872 2264 or workplacerelations@amaq.com.au