Coronavirus and Australian workplace laws
We’re here to help you understand your rights and responsibilities at work during the impact of coronavirus.
We encourage employees and employers to work together to find solutions that suit their individual workplaces and circumstances.
Click the links below for more information about your rights and responsibilities.
Check our News and updates section to see what's been updated recently.
Returning to work & the workplace
In this section, you’ll find:
Pay & leave during coronavirus
In this section, you’ll find:
JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme
In this section, you’ll find:
Temporary changes to workplace laws
In this section, you’ll find:
Health & safety in the workplace
In this section, you’ll find:
Alternative working arrangements
In this section, you’ll find:
Stand downs
In this section, you’ll find:
Ending employment & redundancy
In this section, you’ll find:
Other government information & assistance
In this section, you’ll find:
In this section, you’ll find:
News and updates
4 June 2020
Updated:
- We updated information about overpayments and the JobKeeper scheme on:
3 June 2020
Updated:
- We updated information about taking sick and carer’s leave during stand downs (including JobKeeper enabling stand down directions) on:
29 May 2020
Added:
- We’ve added a new page Returning to work and the workplace, with information about planning and managing the return to work, including lifting stand downs, alternative working arrangements and directing employees to return to the workplace.
- We’ve added a new page Quarantine & self-isolation: pay & leave options, with information about paid and unpaid leave options for employees if they need to quarantine or self-isolate because of coronavirus.
27 May 2020
Updated:
Added:
- We’ve added a search function to help you find the information you need.
22 May 2020
Added:
Updated:
- We added examples to our Leave & the JobKeeper scheme page to illustrate:
- interaction of leave periods with JobKeeper stand down directions
- accrual of leave during a JobKeeper stand down.
- We added examples to our Pay & the JobKeeper scheme page to illustrate:
- requests for secondary employment
- how directions and JobKeeper payments affect other minimum entitlements
- public holiday pay.
20 May 2020
Added:
- We’ve added a new page Resolving workplace issues during coronavirus. It has links to resources to help you with resolving workplace issues, explains how to ask for help, and has information about disputes and enforcement relating to the JobKeeper scheme.
- We’ve added our website translator to this website. You can now use the translator to read some pages in your language, including our JobKeeper wage subsidy section. More pages on this website will be available to translate soon.
19 May 2020
Added:
- We’ve added templates to our JobKeeper enabling stand down directions page and Stand down during coronavirus page that employers can use if they need to stand down employees. They include:
- a letter to notify an employee of a JobKeeper enabling stand down
- a template to issue an employee with a JobKeeper enabling stand down
- a template to issue a stand down for employers not accessing the JobKeeper scheme.
Previous news and updates
To view a list of previous updates to our website, go to our Previous news and updates page.
About our information
We'll continue to update the information on our website as the situation develops and as needed. The information provided is current as at the time of the last update. It is not legal advice but represents the views of the Fair Work Ombudsman based on the best available information. We encourage you to regularly check this page for more information.