Grower Guidance / COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme
COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme
The COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme (used to be ‘COVID-19 Essential Workers Leave Support’) is available for employers, including sole traders, to pay their employees who can’t work.
This means employees:
- can’t come into work because they are in one of the affected groups and Ministry of Health guidelines recommend they stay at home, and
- can’t work from home.
To further support wide-scale testing, the revenue-drop has been removed and ‘negatively impacted’ tests for the scheme which means that businesses with workers who have been told by health officials or their medical practitioner to self-isolate will receive the equivalent of the wage subsidy to help cover that person’s wages for the time they cannot be at work
A reminder you must have employees who either:
- have tested positive for COVID-19 and are required to remain off work until they’ve been cleared by a health professional to be released from self-isolation, or
- have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19 and must self-isolate for 14 days (as required by Ministry of Health guidelines)
- are at higher risk if they get COVID-19, and Ministry of Health guidelines recommend they stay at home while public health restrictions are in place
- have household members who are at higher risk if they get COVID-19 and the Ministry of Health recommends the employee also remains at home to reduce the risk to them.
More information on the leave scheme can be found here.