JobKeeper

The YMCA notified relevant employees via email on Monday 24 August 2020 if they are eligible to receive the JobKeeper payments under JobKeeper 1.5. Eligible employees for JobKeeper 1.5 must meet the following criteria:

• Be currently employed by the YMCA or related entities (this includes staff stood down or de-rostered due to COVID-19 related site closures);
• Are a full-time or part-time employee or are a casual employee on a regular and systematic basis for more than 12 months (as at 1 July 2020);
• Aged 18 years or older at 1 July 2020;
• Are an Australian citizen, the holder of a permanent visa, or a Special Category (Subclass 444) Visa Holder at 1 July 2020;
• Are an Australian resident for tax purposes on 1 July 2020;
• Not in receipt of a JobKeeper Payment from another employer.

You will need to complete a JobKeeper Employee Nomination Notice, which is an Australian Taxation Office form. This form was provided to you in an email when you were notified of your eligibility for JobKeeper 1.5.

Please check your junk folder. If it is not in there, contact Humanresources.vic@ymca.org.au and notify them that you have not received an email notifying you of your eligibility.

Please note, staff who are already receiving JobKeeper payments (JobKeeper 1.0) will continue to do so and will therefore not receive an email regarding JobKeeper 1.5.

The classification of what a regular and systematic casual employee is in line with the definition of the Fair Work Commission.

That is;

The employment that must be on a regular and systematic basis, not the hours worked. A clear pattern or roster of hours is strong evidence of regular and systematic employment.

The YMCA is required to follow the ATO JobKeeper eligibility criteria to determine which employees are eligible. If you are a casual who has been employed for 11 months, you do not meet this eligibility criteria, hence the YMCA cannot make an exemption for you to be eligible.

If you are receiving or in the process of applying for a Centrelink / Services Australia income support payment, like JobSeeker payment, contact Services Australia and let them know that your employer has applied for the JobKeeper payment.

If you do not report the income or cancel your JobSeeker payment, you may incur a debt that you will be required to pay back. Find out more on the Australian Taxation Office website.

If YMCA Victoria has stood you down or de-rostered you due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and you have commenced employment elsewhere, such as Coles or Woolworths, you will be entitled to receive JobKeeper payments if you meet all other JobKeeper eligibility criteria listed above.

JobKeeper for Children’s Programs and some Vacation Care staff finished on 20 July as per the Federal Government’s update to the JobKeeper scheme for this sector. Unfortunately, this means that staff in this sector will not be eligible for JobKeeper 1.5.

Once you have submitted your Employee Nomination Form, you can expect your first JobKeeper Payment of $1,500 per fortnight before tax no later than Wednesday 2 September, 2020.

As the changes are effective from Monday 3 August 2020 and the YMCA pays wages retrospectively, you will also receive a back payment for the fortnights of 20 July – 2 August, 3 August – 16 August and 17 August – 30 August.

There is no Superannuation Guarantee contribution payable on the JobKeeper wage subsidy. So, for example, if you are stood down (not working) and are receiving a JobKeeper payment of (pre-tax) $1,500 – no superannuation is payable on that $1,500.

If you are on reduced hours and are earning a pre-tax amount $1,000 and are eligible for JobKeeper you will be ‘topped up’ with a pre-tax $500 JobKeeper payment – you will receive the Superannuation Guarantee on the $1,000 only.

As you can appreciate, our Payroll team is very busy and they are not a big team. All new eligible employees will receive their JobKeeper 1.5 payments on Wednesday 2 September. If you believe your payment is incorrect please contact the Payroll team at payroll.vic@ymca.org.au and they will endeavour to respond to your query as quickly as they can.

Please visit the ADP Payroll website and follow the prompts for a self-service password reset. If you have forgotten all your login details, please email the Payroll team to access these details.

You can’t reverse any paid leave already taken, however if you would like to cancel leave that is yet to be taken, you can do this by logging into RITEQ, clicking on ‘Absence’ and then deleting your request. If your leave has already been granted in RITEQ, then you will been to contact the Payroll team via payroll.vic@ymca.org.au. Please note, that all staff are still required to reduce their annual leave balance to two weeks.

No, you cannot request to top up your JobKeeper payments with annual leave. For example if you request to take 10 hours annual leave, which equates to $300, you would be paid out the $300 of annual leave and then topped up with the remaining $1,200 JobKeeper payment.

Yes, all part time and full time employees will continue to accrue leave whilst receiving JobKeeper.

On 9 April 2020, the Fair Work Act was amended to support the implementation and operation of the JobKeeper scheme in Australian workplaces. This included a provision that the eligible employer can request an eligible employee to take paid annual leave (if they keep a balance of at least two weeks). You cannot unreasonably refuse this request.

Due to our current financial position, we are asking staff to take any accumulated annual leave (leaving a balance of two weeks) to ensure that we all have a YMCA to come back to after the COVID-19 crisis.

Yes, you can take half your usual pay for twice the length of time, although this needs to be agreed in writing. If you would like to request half pay, please email payroll.vic@ymca.org.au.

Currently the YMCA is following government directive on which areas of our business are safe to operate and are scheduling staff to work for business critical purposes only.

Once you commence receiving JobKeeper payments through the YMCA, you may not be required to attend work, however you must be available upon request by your management team to:

• Perform suitable work tasks/responsibilities either on site or remotely;
• Attend relevant org-wide/team specific meetings;
• Complete compulsory training and accreditations (via online methods if appropriate).

Each YMCA service and program is following government directive to resume its operations. As soon as a YMCA site is preparing to re-open, our decisions on returning employees will be based on what roles will be needed at that site.

If you have been stood up and have returned to work, you are entitled to sick leave irrespective of whether you are on JobKeeper or not. If you are stood down, you are not eligible to access paid sick leave.

Currently, all entities at the YMCA are eligible for JobKeeper payments, with the exception of Children’s Programs and some Vacation Care staff, whose JobKeeper payments finished on 20 July as per the Federal Government’s update to the JobKeeper scheme for this sector.

As we move into the December and March quarter, we must requalify for JobKeeper by demonstrating a 15% drop in revenue in the COVID-affected quarters per entity.

We cannot know if we have requalified for the next quarter of JobKeeper (from October – December) until the current quarter is complete and we have final figures of the Y’s revenue by entity. We therefore will not know definitively if each entity has requalified until early October.

However, we believe all entities will be eligible for JobKeeper 2.0 in the December quarter, and will therefore be notifying all staff who are currently receiving JobKeeper of what payment tier they are from Monday 7 September, 2020.

All employees who currently receive JobKeeper (whether it be JobKeeper 1.0 or 1.5) will automatically be eligible for JobKeeper 2.0. However, a review of hours worked will need to be undertaken to determine which tier each employee falls under.

For the December quarter, those who worked less than 20 hours a week will be moved into the part time tier, which entitles you to $750 a fortnight. Those who worked more than this amount will remain in the first tier, which entitles you to $1,200 a fortnight.

For the March quarter, these figures reduce to $1,000 and $650 respectively.

To determine whether you work an average of 20 hours or more per week, the YMCA will assess the hours you worked in the last two fortnights prior to 1 March or 1 July 2020 – the period with the highest number of hours will be used for the assessment.

You will be notified via email on Monday 7 September to confirm what JobKeeper payment rate you will receive.

If you think there has been a mistake with the review of the hours you worked, you can email Humanresources.vic@ymca.org.au.

If you are currently not receiving JobKeeper and believe you meet the government’s eligibility criteria for the subsidy, you can self-nominate by emailing Humanresources.vic@ymca.org.au.

JobKeeper payments will continue to be paid as part of the regular fortnightly pay cycle of YMCA Victoria.

For the December quarter (October, November, December), you will receive your first payment at the reduced rate on Wednesday 30 September 2020.

JobKeeper 2.0 commenced on Monday 28 September. Therefore, the first payment at the reduced rate was made as part of the YMCA’s regular pay cycle on Wednesday 30 September.

The YMCA is required to make payments in accordance with the ATO’s key dates. The final payment for JobKeeper 1.0 had to be paid to eligible employees by Sunday 27 September (before JobKeeper 2.0 commenced), which staff received on Wednesday 16 September.

JobKeeper 1.0 consisted of 13 fortnights and the YMCA worked closely with the ATO to ensure all payment obligations were met prior to commencing JobKeeper 2.0 (as per the table below).

If you want to opt out of the JobKeeper payment subsidy, please email Humanresources.vic@ymca.org.au.