Casual workers fear cash cut amid lockdown uncertainty

Thousands of vulnerable casual workers fear their shifts will again be cut at the last minute, leaving them significantly out of pocket.

Thousands of casual workers across Queensland are fearful they will lose desperately-needed cash amid ongoing uncertainty over the state’s open and closed COVID-19 response.

Concerns the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 could escape hotel quarantine continues to keep the state on edge, with the possibility of new snap lockdowns being introduced should the risk increase.

The uncertainty has left thousands of vulnerable casual workers fearing their shifts will again be cut at the last minute – leaving them significantly out of pocket.

Retail and Fast Food Workers Union Secretary Josh Cullinan said many workers relied on every shift to make ends meet.

“Casual workers are most adversely affected by the pandemic – including lockdowns and uncertainty,” he said.

“They don’t have access to most forms of leave, don’t have certainty about shifts at all, are the first to be dismissed and are the most likely to be vulnerable workers.

“Retail and fast-food workers who are engaged on a casual basis work for wages to put a roof over their head and food on their table … to feed their kids.”

29 year old Bartender Jake Wood of Gordon Park lost more than 20 hours of work due to Brisbane's Covid-19 lockdown. Picture: Lachie Millard

Mr Cullinan said the sudden loss of shifts had “a massive effect” on workers and said structural change was needed with casual workers accounting for 85 per cent of the workforce at Australia’s largest fast-food and retail chains.

“This is a criticism of structures of work and employment which render a massive workforce entirely without paid leave, job security or income,” he said.

“Casual workers have faced the raw end of such expediency for decades and the pandemic only heightens the impact.

“Until governments value every worker equally – and greater than the sum of the employer’s profits – such exploitation will continue.”

At 9.4 per cent, Queensland has Australia’s highest rate of underemployment – the measure of people not working full time or using all their skill and education.

Queensland’s Acting Employment Minister Grace Grace said lockdowns were made purely to “stop the spread of the virus”.

“The experience with COVID-19 has highlighted the vulnerable position that many casual workers find themselves in, not helped by the fact they have been denied access to the federal government’s JobKeeper program,” she said.

“We’re providing support like the $100m Small Business Adaptation Grants and $20m for free job training.”

Opposition Employment spokesman Brett Mickelberg declared businesses “deserve a better understanding of why decisions are being made” through Queensland’s COVID-19 response.