A couple of new funding initiatives for Victorian businesses have been announced by the Victorian government recently.
There have also been updates to Workcover’s COVID-19 reporting regulations.
Here’s a brief outline of each of these updates:
The Victorian Government’s Small Business COVID Hardship Fund will assist eligible small and medium businesses with a grant of $10,000. This includes employing and non-employing businesses.
To be eligible, your operations must have been severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place since 27 May 2021; you must have experienced at least a 70% reduction in turnover because of the COVID-19 restrictions; you must have been ineligible for other key COVID-19 Victorian Government business grant programs that have been announced since 27 May 2021.
To learn more, see this link.
The Business Costs Assistance Program Round Three 12 August 2021 Top-Up from the Victorian government offers further support to eligible small to medium businesses in sectors affected by metropolitan Melbourne’s current restrictions.
An automatic payment of $2,800 will be made to successful recipients of the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two or the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two July Extension that operate a business in metropolitan Melbourne.
This payment will be processed and paid automatically.
To learn more, see this link.
Under extended WorkSafe regulations, businesses are required to report a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 within the workplace, and if that person has attended the workplace within the relevant infectious period
A failure to notify WorkSafe can lead to heavy fines.
To learn more about your obligations to report confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 relating to your employees and contractors, see this link.
