Op-shops close as wage subsidies refused

Charities have been left unable to apply for JobKeeper payments to keep staff afloat, for one simple reason.

A POTENTIAL lifeline that would keep op-shops open and thousands of charity workers employed during the coronavirus pandemic has failed to hit the mark, according to the sector.

Charities, which employ more than a million workers nationally, had been desperately pushing the Federal Government to remove grant revenues from turnover calculations so their workers would qualify for the $130 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy.

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Special provisions for charities announced late Sunday reduced the threshold for qualifying to a 15 per cent downturn in turnover instead of the 30 per cent drop required for businesses.

But Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said thousands of workers still faced losing their job despite the changes.

“It’s just not a very sophisticated way to look at this problem with the threshold solution,” she said.

“The way we really need to be doing it is, we just need to take the grants out.

“Every time that threshold is lowered it may get a couple more charities across the line but it’s not an answer for thousands of jobs.”

A spokesman for UnitingCare Queensland said the charity was still trying to determine if its workers would qualify for JobKeeper.

The charity runs Lifeline op-shops in Queensland but was forced to shut them last week because most of the volunteer workers were in the vulnerable older age.

Revenue from the stores fund the 1300 Lifeline support phone line, which has recorded a 30 per cent spike in calls during the coronavirus crisis.

Large charities would be able to move workers from areas with plunging demand such as disability services to op-shops if workers qualified for the $1500 a fortnight wage subsidy.

Opposition charities spokesman Andrew Leigh said charities “shedding staff” during the country’s biggest crisis in decade would be “disastrous for the social fabric”.

“Charities have seen a major increase in demand for help, while also experiencing a drop in donations and volunteering numbers,” he said.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said changing the threshold had been “very reasonable”.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing further changes to that,” he said.