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Closedown Periods
- michaella_Datacom
Analytics
What is a closedown period?
Employers may have an annual closedown on a regular basis. A closedown is defined as the situation where employers:
close their operations or discontinue the work of one or more employees; and
require their employees to take all or some of their annual holidays.
The closedown may occur across the entire business or there may be different closedown periods for separate parts of the business. Employers may implement such a closure once a year. If the parties agree, employers may close their operations and discontinue the work of employees at other times, but the employer cannot require the employees to take annual holidays for a second closedown.
An employee:
who is entitled to annual holidays at the commencement of a closedown period must, if required to do so by his or her employer, take annual holidays during the closedown period whether or not the employee agrees to take the holidays, provided they are given at least 14 days' notice of this requirement.
who is not yet entitled to annual holidays at the commencement of a closedown period must, if required to do so by his or her employer, discontinue his or her work during the closedown period. They must be be paid 8% of their gross earnings as at the closedown date, less the value of any annual holidays taken in advance. Their anniversary date for annual holiday entitlement purposes is then shifted to the date the closedown begins.
For all employees whose work is subject to a regular annual closedown, the employer may nominate a date, which will be treated as the date on which the closedown begins, and on which the employees become entitled to annual leave e.g. 20 December. This avoids having a different date each year on which the employee becomes entitled to annual leave (where the start date for the closedown varies from year to year).
Further information on how to use closedown periods within DataPay can be found in the below pages:
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