Answer
For detailed information on accruing and taking leave when receiving JobKeeper payments please see the Fair Work Australia website. Common scenarios they reference are below.
Requesting employees to take annual leave
If an employer asks their employee to take annual leave, the employee has to consider the request. They can’t unreasonably refuse it.
Employees who are on annual leave continue to accrue their usual leave entitlements while they're on leave, and the period of leave counts as service.
Taking annual leave at half pay
Employees who make an agreement to take annual leave at half pay continue to accrue leave entitlements (such as annual and sick and carer’s leave) as if they were taking annual leave at full pay.
If an employee takes leave at half pay, redundancy pay and payment in lieu of notice of termination are also calculated as if the agreement hadn’t been made.
Taking paid leave instead of minimum JobKeeper payment
If an employee is given a JobKeeper enabling stand down direction, the employee will be entitled to be paid at least the amount of the JobKeeper payment for a fortnight ($1500 before tax). This amount may be less than the employee would have received if they had worked their usual hours during that fortnight.
If an eligible employee has been given a JobKeeper enabling stand down direction to work less hours than usual (or no hours), but wants to be paid their normal pay, they can agree with their employer to use their paid leave entitlements to top up the amount they’re being paid. If that happens, for the time they’re on paid leave, they’re not on a JobKeeper enabling stand down.
An employee and their employer can agree for the employee to take leave (such as annual leave or long service leave), including taking annual leave at half-pay. In any relevant fortnight, the employee must be paid the greater of either the amount of the JobKeeper payment or their usual pay for work performed, including leave payments.
An employer can’t unreasonably refuse an employee’s request to take annual leave.
Employees subject to a JobKeeper enabling stand down direction still accrue their usual leave entitlements for the period the direction applies (as if the direction hadn't been given to them).