The Back to Work Bill 2014 (Vic) has passed the Victorian Legislative Assembly without amendment and has moved to the Legislative Council.
The Victorian Government said the Bill, introduced on 23 December 2014, proposes to create a Back to Work Scheme “which will provide up to id=”mce_marker”00m in relief to businesses hiring unemployed youth, the long-term unemployed and retrenched workers”. Under the proposed Scheme, companies that hire eligible workers will receive fixed payments to offset the costs associated with hiring extra employees. These include state taxes, training, transport and tools. The Victorian Treasurer is expected to determine the eligibility criteria for payments by way of gazettal notice prior to the Scheme coming into operation on 1 July 2015.
The Government said all Victorian businesses will be eligible to participate in the scheme, except those with a poor workplace safety record.
An eligible employer will qualify for the Scheme after they employ an eligible person for 3 months. The employer cannot qualify again by terminating that employee and immediately rehiring them.
The Government said the Scheme will be administered by the Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO) which “will closely monitor take up rates and industry behaviour to make sure this doesn’t happen”.
Once the Bill is passed and the Treasurer has released the eligibility criteria for the Scheme, the SRO said it will publish further guidance materials to assist claimants with the eligibility requirements and the application processes.
The Scheme is proposed to effectively come into effect on 1 April 2015 with the first payments available from 1 July 2015.
[LTN 29, 13.2.15]