Despite the $1.9 billion cost to Australians, executives in retail and hospitality have asked for the reinstatement of $750 Covid sick-leave payments.
After almost $2 billion in debt was amassed since the Morrison Government first announced the weekly sick leave payment in August 2020, Labor terminated it last week.
The Albanese Government implemented the Coalition’s decision to halt payments at the conclusion of the fiscal year 2021–2022, claiming that the $1 trillion national debt and the elimination of the majority of Covid limitations rendered the payment no longer advantageous.
However, casual hospitality and retail personnel stated the payment’s termination came at the worst possible moment given that about 42,000 instances were registered on Friday and that more cases are anticipated during the winter.
Julian O’Neill, a Sydney barista, stated that he is still waiting on his Covid sick leave payout from late June and pointed out that although casual employees are not entitled to paid sick leave, they are still required to undergo a seven-day isolation period.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying, “A lot of us live week to week, so if you’re unwell and you’re not working full time, so you don’t receive sick leave, you miss out on money for food, rent, bills, and simply life.”
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said the decision to scrap the payment was ‘short-term thinking,’ while Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union secretary Steve Murphy warned workers will retaliate.
‘Whatever we need to do to get the attention of the government, we will do,’ Murphy said, setting up the movement’s first collision course with the new Labor government, while calling on them to stand behind their praise of the pandemic’s frontline workers.
Australia still requires positive Covid cases to isolate for seven days, exempting a few key sectors like transport and healthcare.
Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said Australia is now at a stage ‘where we live with community transmission’.
‘The requirements for when people need to isolate, and for how long, have been significantly reduced since the payment was introduced,’ he said.
‘We inherited a budget with a trillion dollars of debt, so keeping to the plan of letting these payments expire 2.5 years into the pandemic is the responsible thing to do.’
However, Australian Retailers’ Association CEO Paul Zahra said the removal of the ‘valuable’ payment safety net ‘comes as staff absences and labour shortages continue to cripple the economy’.
‘While a lot of progress has been made in terms of how we live with Covid, we need to strike the right balance where vulnerable people forced out of work continue to be supported,’ he said.
In May 780,500 people were working less hours because of sickness, the highest number recorded in five years according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Pizza chef Fynn Barker claimed that as an unpaid casual employee, he is “in a really bad place” due to the forced solitude.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald, “Inflation and power rates are high, my expenses have nearly quadrupled this month, and rent has gone up as well.”
Dr. Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association, stated that after expanding hospital funding to states and introducing a fourth dose of the vaccine but cutting the essential payment, the government needs to be clear about whether it will support the community during the pandemic or not.
He stated of casual employees, “It’s basically a decision between obeying public health recommendations and having no revenue for a week.”