Full-time to Part-time Employment

If you made any changes to staff hours under the JobKeeper scheme – i.e. reduced their hours – and decide to make them permanent when the scheme finishes at the end of September, you will need to discuss this with the employee first as the rules around making a permanent change to hours depend on whether the employee has agreed to the change.

If the employee agrees to a permanent reduction in hours and their full-time employment ends, they will need to enter into a new contract which sets out the agreed weekly hours. This also means the normal rules for ending employment apply, including giving notice and the employee being paid out any accrued entitlements.

To note, generally employees can’t be forced to reduce their hours without the employer ending their full-time position and re-engaging them as a part time employee. If an employer does this, the usual protections from unfair and unlawful termination apply … read more >>