An agreement has been made to temporarily amend the Vehicle Manufacturing, Repair, Services and Retail Award 2010 to help businesses stay open and workers stay in jobs during COVID-19.

The amendments aim to protect and preserve the ongoing viability of businesses and employees that are not eligible for JobKeeper Payments by helping employees remain employed and retain standard rates of pay.

Through these temporary amendments, full- and part-time employees will be provided with greater flexibility to take on a greater range of duties with their employer where possible.

A temporary reduction in work hours may also be granted for under-utilised employees to explore secondary employment, training or professional development. All employees on reduced hours may receive fortnightly minimum pay entitlements and the ability to agree to top up their pay with accrued paid leave.

Employers will also be allowed to direct employees to take annual leave for reasons attributable to COVID-19, so long as the employee retains a balance of two weeks annual leave. Employers may also choose to cease operations for a period for reasons relating to COVID-19, including initiative from government to slow down the transmission of the virus.

It has been made clear that these temporary amendments may only apply to an employee if it is not unreasonable in all the circumstances.

The decision to introduce the temporary amendments was made after an application was lodged with the Fair Work Commission, with employers and unions coming together to hold extensive discussions on the issue.

Present at the discussion was representatives from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce and motor trades associations, the Australian Automotive Dealers Association, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, and the Australian Industry Group.

Negotiations were led by Tamsin Lawrence, Deputy Director of Workplace Relations at ACCI, who said much of the automotive industry was relying on amendments to the award to survive the pandemic as most businesses in the industry were not eligible for the JobKeeper Payments.

“It is in everyone’s interests to preserve the viability of businesses and as many jobs as possible during the COVID-19 crisis, and this is the objective of the proposes award variations,” said Lawrence.

“We know the significant decrease in sales for the vehicles industry as a result of COVID-19 comes on top of more than two years of uninterrupted negative sales.

“Providing temporary flexibility for those in the vehicles industry who don’t qualify for JobKeeper through this proposed award variation is vital to ensuring these businesses make it to the other side of the current harsh trading environment caused by COVID-19.”

News of approved amendments to the Vehicle Manufacturing, Repair, Services and Retail Award comes as figures for new car sales in April were released, depicting a 48.5 per cent decline in new car sales, the largest month-to-month drop ever recorded in Australia.

6 May 2020