Coronavirus Australia: What is unpaid pandemic leave?

Australian workers are set to score special unpaid pandemic leave as a result of the coronavirus crisis – and it could save your job.

Millions of employees will soon be able to access new, unpaid pandemic leave in a move the government says will protect “tens of thousands of jobs”.

Attorney-General Christian Porter announced the new rules yesterday, which are the result of changes to more than 100 industrial awards.

They also include access to extended annual leave at reduced pay rates, and will be brought in by the Fair Work Commission in a bid to keep more Australians in jobs during the coronavirus crisis.

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Mr Porter said the government took just three weeks to devise the temporary reforms which would ordinarily take three decades to achieve.

“It’s probably fair to say that there’s been the type of change in three weeks inside the award system that you might otherwise wait 30 years to see,” Mr Porter said.

“The reform has been temporary, it’s meant to last for as long as this crisis lasts.”

Under the reforms, “very significant changes” had been made to three of 121 modern awards – including restaurants, hospitality and the Clerks Award – which cover around two million workers.

The greater flexibility could save jobs and businesses. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

“The changes to those three awards have meant things like … an individual worker who was performing one type of duty in one type of classification can go and move and perform another type of duty in another type of classification,” Mr Porter said.

“They have facilitated working from home arrangements. Remarkably, some of the awards were so inflexible it was actually unlawful to work from home.

“They’ve also have allowed for, by agreement, things such as taking longer durations of annual leave at reduced rates.”

He explained that 103 modern awards will now include provisions for two weeks of unpaid pandemic leave and will allow workers to take double the amount of annual leave for half their usual pay.

“Those types of changes are absolutely critical, they would’ve saved tens of thousands of jobs,” Mr Porter said, adding the increased flexibility would help keep business afloat.

The Fair Work Commission said in a statement the changes would also help to protect public health by making it easier for workers to stay home and self-isolate if that was deemed necessary.

“By addressing the ‘regulatory gap’ the new entitlement to unpaid pandemic leave will enable more people to remain in employment,” Business Insider quoted the Commission as saying.

“The proposed entitlement will also support the important public policy objective of encouraging those who should self-isolate to do so and thereby limit the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces, allowing businesses to continue to operate.”