SALON CHRISTMAS SHUTDOWN REQUIREMENTS FOR 2017

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Posted October 9, 2017

While Christmas might seem an age away for many salon owners staring down the barrel of one of the busiest periods of the year, it’s important that you start considering your salon closure period for Christmas now to ensure that you are completely compliant.

 

Salon owners are required to give their staff 4 weeks’ notice of any salon shut down in writing, which if you work backwards from the 20^th of December (as an example) means the last date you can submit this notice is the 20^th of November, only 5 weeks away from today. HABA Members can download an easy-to-use template for the Direction to take Annual Leave letter for salon staff from the HABA Members Area of the website. This template letter ensures that you are correctly covering your legal requirements to staff during this shutdown period and that there is no confusion about what staff are or are not entitled to during this period.

 

HABA recommend that salon owners have a preliminary discussion with their staff about Christmas Closure, as this allows your staff to actively contribute to the conversation and forces them to think about any annual leave they may be taking at this time of year, making sure that you aren’t left in the lurch with plenty of requests when you issue your official notice. This is also a great time to discuss the Christmas Roster, to ensure that there is enough staff on the salon floor in the weeks leading up to, between and immediately after the Christmas Break period. For many salons, this can be the busiest time of the year as everyone tries to get their hair, eyebrows, tan and nails right for the big party season – so don’t get left short staffed, and instead try to have these conversations early so that your team are clear about what is expected of them during this period.

 

If your salon is not having a shutdown period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, there are a number of public holidays in this period. In 2017, the public holidays include Monday 25^th December, Tuesday 26^th December and Monday 1^st January. For any operation during this period, salon owners must pay their staff the correct penalty rates for these public holidays, or decide to close their salon on these dates instead. For any closure on dates between Christmas and New Year’s Day including the 27-31^st of January, these dates must be taken by salon staff as days of annual leave. Annual leave entitlements must still be paid during the shutdown period, in compliance with the Hair & Beauty Award.

 

Christmas can be a great chance for your whole salon to come together and celebrate the year that was, look forward to the year ahead and recharge their batteries with some days off over the period. But as a business owner, it’s important that you get started early to ensure that your staff, salon and business is prepared for this period so that you too can take a much-needed break at this time of year.

 

If you don’t feel fully up to date on the logistics of Christmas, you can contact Hair & Beauty Australia on 02 9221 9911 or visit www.askhaba.com.au. Otherwise, there’s nothing left to do but plan your gifts and enjoy the time off!