To deal with the intermittency of renewable energy, demand management is important. That should include allowing employers to send employees home on reasonable terms.
Right now, the Fair Work Act 2009, Section 524 allows an employer to "stand down [not pay but also not require to be present] an employee during a period in which the employee cannot usefully be employed" for a number of reasons including "a stoppage of work for any cause for which the employer cannot reasonably be held responsible". Section 525 gives employees the option to take annual leave instead.
So, if there is an electricity shortage and a company were to experience interruptions to its power supply, these provisions would obviously apply. In order to prevent the electricity network from failing (which would cause damage to the network), the regulator can direct power companies to interrupt supply to businesses and consumers. This is called "load shedding". See articles by the ABC and Ausgrid.
Load shedding is obviously a brute instrument. It would be good to have arrangements where energy-intensive employers can direct employees to be absent on part pay (or full pay and part leave) if electricity prices temporarily go up or are forecast to go up. In such an arrangement, employees should still accrue leave (Employees don't get more leave when they work overtime, so they should not get less leave when they work less time than usual). The following are what I consider reasonable rates of part pay for some scenarios:
| Number of days per year | Full days, notified by 7pm the previous day | Part days, early finish, notified same day |
|---|---|---|
| First two | 10% | 40% |
| Additional two | 30% | 55% |
| Additional five | 50% | 70% |
| Additional three | 60% | 75% |
| Any after that | 75% | 85% |
Employees should have the option, assuming available annual or long service leave, to be absent on full pay and part leave instead, achieving the same result for the employer in terms of cost. For example, instead of taking a day off on 30% pay, the employee should be able to take the day off on full pay but use of 70% of a leave day.
Employers should be required to give employees the opportunity to earn their base salary without sacrificing leave through allocation of overtime and/or allocation of shifts to which penalty rates are applicable.