Too many workers don\u2019t have leave entitlements to allow them to economically survive a diagnosis of COVID-19. Frontline staff in people-facing industries are among the most vulnerable, given the required interactions with hundreds of people a day, but often have few legal protections should one of these interactions make them sick.
\nGreens MPs are moving across the country to extend workers compensation coverage to workers who contract or are suspected to have contracted COVID-19.
\nThe Bills, the first of which has just been introduced in the NSW Parliament, will apply to full time, part time, contract and casual workers. This bill will cover:<\/p>\n
Greens Leader Adam Bandt said:<\/strong> Too many workers don\u2019t have leave entitlements to allow them to economically survive a diagnosis of COVID-19. Frontline staff in people-facing industries are among the most vulnerable, given the required interactions with hundreds of people a day, but often have few legal protections should one of these interactions make them sick. Greens MPs are moving … Continue reading “Greens call for urgent nation-wide extension of workers compensation benefits to cover COVID-19”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cThe Greens want to ensure that workers affected by coronavirus get supported through this crisis and this is a very straightforward proposal that all other political parties at State and Federal levels can support.
\n\u201cHundreds of thousands of people will be off work in connection with the coronavirus because they\u2019re sick, in self-isolation or their workplace has had an incident.
\n\u201cGovernments are scrambling to support workers in this time of crisis, but part of the solution is right before their eyes.
\n\u201cIf we change the law so that sick or coronavirus-affected workers are automatically entitled to existing workers\u2019 compensation schemes, they will maintain an income without imposing costs on their employer.
\n\u201cThis simple move also means we don\u2019t have to create new payment systems and the delays that can come with that, because we\u2019re using well-known and proven institutions who know how to get money to workers when they need it.\u201d
\nGreens MP and spokesperson for workers\u2019 right David Shoebridge said:<\/strong>
\n\u201cWe can and we must act urgently to provide far more protection for workers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
\n\u201cSo many workers in industries like retail, hospitality and the entertainment sector, are employed as casuals and without these protections if they fall sick they will get nothing.
\n\u201cThe Federal and state governments are providing stimulus packages and bailouts to businesses, they must now act to protect workers.
\n\u201cNo worker should suffer a financial cost because they got sick at work or have to isolate after attending work.
\n\u201cThe Greens are calling on all political parties to support these changes\u00a0 and act now before the COVID-19 crisis is at its peak\u2019.
\n\u201cAll states and territories should consider introducing similar legislation, the COVID-19 crisis is a bigger challenge than anything we\u2019ve seen in our lifetime, this is not a time for half measures.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"