Opinion: Workers have the right to say ‘no’ to unsafe work
Staffing shortages caused by this summer’s Omicron surge have led to the relaxation of COVID restrictions by federal and state governments.
Rules were also changed to allow an ever-expanding group of key or essential workers, including those in food production, emergency services, utilities and transportation, to return to work even if they are a close contact – with no isolation period – subject to certain conditions. empower work health and safety representatives to direct the cessation of unsafe work based on “a reasonable concern that to carry out the work would expose [a worker] to a serious risk to the worker’s health or safety, emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard”;
Since the pandemic began, unions have stepped in to resist failures by businesses to ensure safe working conditions at workplaces like industrial laundries, warehouses/distribution centres, wharves, call centres, aircraft/airports and in many other settings. They have done this by successfully utilising some or a combination of the above legal provisions.
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