Bosses, govt should pay for pandemic leave gaps, says Labor

Labor says every day of delay for a paid pandemic scheme is deadly.

Paid pandemic leave should be funded by employers and the federal government, Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said today.

Labor and the unions are putting pressure on the government to introduce a payment in an effort to prevent sick workers without leave entitlements from spreading the coronavirus.

Mr Chalmers said although some employers were doing the right thing and offering support, the government needed to fill in the gaps.

“It’s absolutely necessary that we have paid pandemic leave,” Mr Chalmers said on the ABC Insiders program on Sunday.

“Every day of delay here is deadly.”

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Mr Chalmers called on the government’s working groups to resolve the issue.

“The government has to step in, even if that’s costly,” he said.

“The cost of not doing that is much greater in terms of lives lost and impacts on the economy over the short and medium term.”

Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers will talk with Treasury to see what the tapering of JobKeeper from October means for Victorian businesses. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

As Victoria continues to battle a high number coronavirus cases from community transmission, Mr Chalmers said the government needed to reconsider the tapering of JobKeeper and JobSeeker measures in October.

“JobKeeper should be tailored and responsive to the conditions in the economy,” he said.

“We think that the rate should be tapered at some point, but clearly the developments in the economy in the last couple of weeks since the budget was updated warrants a reconsidering of that.”

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The national unemployment rate is forecast to hit 9.25 per cent in December, prompting Labor to push the Morrison Government on their jobs plan.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the need for energy market reform saying policy certainty will lead to more investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, and more jobs.