Commonwealth Bank, Woolworths, Telstra to pay casuals coronavirus leave

Commonwealth Bank has joined Woolworths and Telstra by pledging paid leave to casual workers impacted by coronavirus.

Commonwealth Bank has pledged to provide paid leave to casual workers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Hollie Adams

Commonwealth Bank has joined Woolworths and Telstra as big employers pledging to provide paid leave to casual workers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

But ACTU secretary Sally McManus accused Scott Morrison of leaving casual workers “cruelly exposed” after the government refused to back special paid leave for casuals impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Morrison said on Thursday the government would waive waiting times for casuals to access sickness payments under the welfare system if they were required to be away from work due to the outbreak.

Commonwealth Bank said on Thursday that special leave would be provided for the bank’s casual employees if they were unwell or needed to go into self-isolation.

It is understood the bank is considering providing casuals with up to 10 days paid leave.

The bank has 40,000 employees nationally and believes it has adequate leave arrangements for any impacted permanent employees. The bank was unable to specify the precise number of casuals employed across its operations.

Woolworths Group said it would provide paid leave of up to two weeks for employees, including casuals, forced into isolation by the coronavirus or who need to care for children due to school or childcare closures.

The policy applies to 190,000 workers, including 55,000 casuals, across its supermarkets, Big W, BWS and Dan Murphy’s.

Impacted full-time and part-time employees will get up to two weeks paid leave if existing leave is unavailable or used up. Casual employees will be paid based on their upcoming two-week roster.

Woolworths Group chief people officer, Caryn Katsikogianis said: “As Australia’s largest private employer, we recognise we have a key role to play as part of the broader public health response.

“We're making it clear to our team that we'll look after anyone impacted by the outbreak whether they’re full-time, part-time or casual.

“This is not only the right thing to do by those team members, but also an important measure to ensure everybody in our business takes appropriate action in response to public health advice.”

The move by Woolworths, which recently admitted underpaying staff by $315 million, came after Telstra announced thousands of its employees unable to work from home would be guaranteed up to 14 days’ paid leave if impacted by coronavirus.

A Coles spokesman said on Thursday the company was considering how best to support all employees in the event they were unable to attend work due to the coronavirus outbreak.

More than 90 per cent of Telstra’s 29,000 workers are able to work from home and the company said it would ensure remaining employees would be able to access up to two weeks’ paid leave if affected by the outbreak.

The policy changes are largely aimed at technicians in the field as well as store and contact centre employees.

Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, welcomed the employer action on casuals.

But Ms McManus said the government had gone “from ignoring casual and contract workers to suggesting they should have been putting aside money just in case there was a pandemic to now putting them on poverty-level welfare payments”.