Big changes coming to Qld public servant’s working hours in wake of COVID-19
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced there will be big changes to the working lives of Queensland public servants in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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PUBLIC servants will have their working hours massively overhauled under a state government plan to keep returning workers safe from COVID-19.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the government had been having conversations around how the working hours of its workforce would need to change as people began returning to offices and workplaces across the state.
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The Courier-Mail understands the return-to-work plan being worked on will provide dates for which state government employees would return to offices.
It’s expected more detail of the plan will be announced later this week.
It comes as school students return to classes tomorrow, as businesses across the country put in place their own COVID-safe plans and as questions are raised about the safety of public transport as more people come out of home isolation.
It’s been estimated that some companies could take hours just to get its normal workforce into their offices as restrictions such as maximum numbers of people allowed in lifts are dealt with.
“I know that we’ve been speaking to the heads of department of the public service talking about structured return to work hours,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Sunday.
“So people would still do their full complement of hours but they would either start much earlier or finish much later so we’re not actually making the public transport system congested.
“But honestly we do not have the issues here in the south east that you would see in areas such as Melbourne and Sydney.”
She said the federal advice was that people who could work from home should still continue to do so.
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