Sophie Scanlon
The Job keeper payment has saved business owners and employees alike from financial ruin, but it is creating some imbalances in the workplace.
The way the job keeper payments work is that all employees, regardless of whether they work 5 hours a week or 30 hours get paid $750 weekly, before tax.
Although if within your normal pay you would exceed this amount your employer will pay you the additional amount.
With a large amount of the job keeper recipients being long term casual workers with fluctuating hours it means that some staff members are getting more bang for their buck.
This effects the staff as they can begin to feel underappreciated within the workplace as they’re working more than others.
The current COVID 19 situation has been unpredictable and challenging for many businesses which means that shifts are constantly changing.
Meaning managers have had to make last minute shift changes and when business picked up required more hours from their casual staff.
But without any monetary gains offered by working additional hours managers are struggling to get shifts filled and staff motivated.
It also means that staff which were ineligible for the job keeper schemes have been left off of rosters and have had to decide whether they should quit and apply for job seeker or take the few shifts on offer to them.
So although the job keeper payments have provided a lot of benefits it has changed the workplace dynamic.
