100% foreign-owned companies are now excluded from the wage subsidy program
A last-minute amendment to JobKeeper rules on eligibility has caused thousands of workers to be disqualified from the Australian government’s wage subsidy program.
Workers at foreign-owned companies, such as frozen foods supplier Dnata, will no longer receive the fortnightly payment of $1,500 after the government redefined the terms on ‘sovereign entity’. The update is also set to be retroactive, commencing from 30 March.
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Employers are now “excluded from the JobKeeper scheme if they are 100% owned by a foreign government, even if they are an Australian resident,” the Australian Services Union (ASU) said.
Dnata, for example, employs Australians but its parent company, The Emirates Group, is wholly owned by the government of Dubai. This essentially shuts out 5,500 workers from the program.
The food company on Monday informed workers about the update. But the company also said it had received prior advice from the Australian Taxation Office that its workers qualified for the scheme.
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“Dnata enrolled for the scheme and implemented plans for the retention and payment of our Australian employees on this basis,” a spokesperson for the company told news.com.au.
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Dnata expressed both surprise and dismay over the sudden turn of events, especially considering how the company is known to have poured $300m into investments towards infrastructure, technology upgrade and job creation in the 13 years it has been operating in the country.
“This change, at short notice and backdated to 30 March, excludes Dnata, an employer of 6,000 Australians from the JobKeeper scheme,” the spokesperson said.
The ASU, meanwhile, vowed to “do everything within its power to attempt to get this outrageous narrow-minded decision changed so that [workers] get the support that [they] deserve.”
“Scott Morrison took JobKeeper away from you with the stroke of a pen and we will be demanding that he fix the problem that he has created,” the union said.