Coronavirus: ‘Pandemic leave’ key to stop spread

Public health advocates have called for 10 days of taxpayer-funded paid pandemic leave for workers, including casuals.

Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Terry Slevin. Picture: Daniel Wilkins

Public health advocates have called for 10 days of taxpayer-funded paid pandemic leave for workers, including casuals, to guard against a second wave of COVID-19 cases.

The Public Health Association of Australia on Tuesday urged federal, state and territory governments to fund an employer-administered “universal” national paid pandemic leave to operate over the next 12 months.

Under the proposal, workers would be entitled to 10 days’ paid leave to enable them to stay home when sick and to self-isolate until tested and confirmed free from the virus. Permanent and part-time workers with existing access to leave entitlements would be able to draw down on their annual leave, and the association said a universal scheme would assist the millions of casuals who have no access to paid leave.

In a letter to Scott Morrison, the premiers and chief ministers, association chief executive Terry Slevin said about 35 per cent of workers, more than 3.6 million, had no access to sick leave and the scheme would be essential in helping to avoid a serious resurgence of virus transmission.

He told The Australian the scheme would cost about $324m based on a 30 per cent take-up rate by workers without paid leave.

Professor Slevin said the scheme represented a critical public health intervention to guard against a second wave of infections, and needed to be implemented urgently. The possibility of increased community transmission would grow as COVID-19 restrictions eased and Australians returned to workplaces.

“It will be essential to maintain extensive testing, and isolation of actual and suspected cases to avoid a second wave of infections,” he said. “Staying home when sick is one of the core messages promoted to the public to reduce the spread of this coronavirus.

“Despite this messaging, it is well known that workers suffering from possible, and often mild, COVID-19 symptoms … attend work, presenting a heightened risk of transmission. This risk … increases in workers who have little or no access to paid sick leave.”

World Health Organisation figures show that during the 2009 swine flu pandemic thousands of employees without sick leave returned to work while unwell.