Labor last week axed the $750-a-week payment to those isolating with COVID, which cost almost $1.9 billion since it was introduced in August 2020 | Exclusive by AngusGthompson angus_dalton MartaPascual3
Australia’s retail and hospitality peak bodies have joined with the union movement and medical experts in calling on the government to reintroduce a COVID sick-leave safety net as cases surge.
Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said in a statement the nation was in a different phase of the pandemic now “where we live with community transmission”. Andrew McKellar, chief executive Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, backed scrapping the payments “given unprecedented deficit and debt levels”, but industry associations with high numbers of casuals are concerned casual staff with no fallback will work while infectious and spread disease.
Restaurant and Catering Australia head Belinda Clarke said that without the paid leave, “there could be an increased spread of COVID-19 among hospitality staff which would strain the labour force in our industry”.Julian O’Neill, a barista at Eatz Cafe in Darlington, inner Sydney, said he was waiting on a disaster relief payment he applied for in late June after coming down with COVID-19.
Fynn Barker, a cook at Small Time Group pizzeria in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, would like to see the payments return.
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Retail, hospitality heads want pandemic payments back as cases surgeLabor last week axed the $750-a-week payment to those isolating with COVID, which cost almost $1.9 billion since it was introduced in August 2020.
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