ACTU demands PM supports Omicron-impacted workers

Sally McManus says worsening virus outbreak is a national crisis that needs leadership.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has demanded Scott Morrison support workers impacted by the Omicron outbreak. Picture: AAP

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has demanded Scott Morrison increase financial support to Covid-impacted businesses and workers, back the mail-out of free rapid antigen tests to households, and extend paid pandemic leave to all close contacts, declaring the worsening Omicron outbreak was a national crisis that needed national leadership.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms McManus urged Mr Morrison to hold an urgent meeting with her and union leaders representing essential workers “on the front line of the Omicron crisis”, saying unions “stand ready to work with government to save lives and livelihoods” as they did in 2020 after the pandemic hit.

The union push came as it emerged the relaxation of Covid isolation rules could extend to more industries after concerns that workforce shortages could start affecting the electricity, water, gas and fuel sectors.

The Australian understands that Mr Morrison is due to hold a meeting of the National Co-­ordination Mechanism on Wednesday with representatives of the aviation and transport sectors to address the supply chain crisis. However, he has also called for an assessment of the impact of worker shortages across critical services including energy and fuel.

With federal, state and territory governments seeking to ­address shortages on supermarket shelves, the nation’s expert medical panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), approved new isolation rules for workers in critical industries.

Under the changes, asymptomatic workers in key supply-chain jobs across the food processing, production and distribution sectors could continue to work if they returned negative rapid antigen tests. The new rules will also capture emer­gency services workers.

The workers would need to produce a negative rapid test every second day until day six. The inclusion of transport and aviation was being strongly considered, while some states are pushing for hospitality but not in customer-facing roles.

Urging four key policy measures, Ms McManus told Mr Morrison that “right now, working people and their families are suffering”.

“The toll is physical with so many sick; psychological with high levels of anxiety and uncertainty; and economic as businesses are again shutting down or reducing operations and workers are losing income,” she wrote.

“In addition, parts of our health care system are being overwhelmed and health care workers are exhausted, and now parts of supply chains are failing with so many workers sick at once. People are struggling to ­access tests, vaccines and now ­essentials in supermarkets.

“The accelerating Omicron outbreak is a national crisis. It calls for national leadership. We need the support of our government to be able to keep the country going and at the same time to keep workers and the community safe.”

Unions want rapid tests “free and accessible for all”, and prioritised for frontline and essential workers. “When supply issues are ­resolved, these need to be accessible in a safe manner, such as mailing them to homes and being accessed at testing hubs,” Ms McManus said.

“We must avoid people who are infectious needing to attend businesses or pharmacies to ­access them, this is already a significant problem.”

Calling for paid pandemic leave to be extended to all close contacts, she said close contacts must include those exposed at work, not just in households.

“The recent changes to the close contact definition do not make sense as a worker who spends all day with Covid positive work colleagues is now excluded from being considered a close contact and therefore excluded from paid pandemic leave,” she said.

“A range of responses were developed in 2020-21 when working people found themselves losing income or their jobs because of businesses shutting down or reducing work,” Ms McManus told Mr Morrison.

“This is happening again and causing considerable economic stress. Most workers who have paid leave have now exhausted it, casual workers and sole traders have nothing.”

Amid chronic shortages of rapid tests nationwide, industry groups questioned how small and medium employers would access the tests and demanded greater transparency from the federal government about when supplies would be available.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said businesses faced a “high degree of confusion and uncertainty as a result of shifts in rules and approaches by government, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, on an almost daily basis”.

“Any move by governments to require testing in certain workplaces would need to be fully resourced and supported to avoid additional regulatory burden and costs for business,” he said.

Ports Australia chief executive Mike Gallacher said rapid tests continued to be “incredibly hard to source”, as he called for greater transparency about testing supplies. “The key now for the government to start disseminating to critical industries is the timeline on when RAT numbers will be here, and their distribution. So people can start factoring it into rostering and workforce management,” Mr Gallacher said.

Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Tanya Barden said there were still differences in the approaches being taken by NSW, Queensland and Victoria that could undermine the operation of the latest ­isolation requirements.

Ms Barden said the NSW and Victorian rules required asymptomatic workers to undergo daily rapid tests but Queensland workers needed to be tested only on day six. The definition of a close contact in Queensland was “unclear” and focused solely on fresh food supply, rather than the ­entire food supply chain.

Ms Barden said state governments either needed to provide rapid tests as a “matter of urgency” or take a “pragmatic approach” which did not require daily testing. Without these changes, supermarkets would continue to see shortages.

Road Freight NSW chief executive Simon O’Hara said the urgent supply of rapid tests to the sector was crucial given freight companies were experiencing “high levels of absenteeism”.

“I’ve been contacted by a large freight company today who said to me, if we don’t get RAT tests soon, then we’re going to have to reduce our footprint within the supply chain while we deal with things here,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SIMON BENSON