Despite announcement, opposition demands Albanese to apologise to workers
Unions across the country welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to protect workers by restoring the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) announced in a media release.
As Australia continues to battle with the COVID-19 pandemic and workers are still struggling to recover from several lockdowns, the Albanese government announced that it will restore the pandemic leave payment until September 30, with the cost equally split among Commonwealth and states and territories.
Based on News.com.au’s report, Australian workers affected by isolation rules, who cannot get sick leave, are now eligible for $750 payments from the government.
Good news for workers
According to ACTU, 776,000 people missed work in June of 2021 due to sickness, and since new variants are starting to emerge, the number of COVID-19 cases is expected to grow alongside reinfection.
“It’s not just casual workers who will benefit from this leave being restored, but hundreds of thousands of workers who have run out of sick leave,” ACTU said.
Moreover, ACTU said restoring support payments guarantees businesses will remain open and the economy can continue to recover.
“The Health Minister has been very clear that Covid case numbers are expected to increase in coming months as we deal with new variants and reinfection, meaning many workers will be without employer sick leave – restoring Pandemic Disaster Leave Payments is the best way to protect Australians,” ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said.
“PM Albanese has made the right decision to protect workers and businesses by restoring Pandemic Leave Disaster Payments. The previous Morrison Government should never have set the finish date in the middle of winter,” she added.
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The ACTU Secretary also said that by bringing back the pandemic leave payment, workers no longer face the dilemma of choosing between isolating themselves because of the COVID-19 virus and putting food on the table for their families.
Lash from the opposition
Despite the positive response of unions, News.com.au reported that acting opposition leader Sussan Ley slammed Albanese for taking his time to bring back the support payment for people affected by the virus.
“He knew, as those payments were concluding, exactly what the health situation was turning into with new waves of Covid,” Ley told the ABC.
Ley added that due to the “flip-flopping,” the prime minister must apologize to every casual worker who suffered stress and burdens from the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Albanese noted that while restoring emergency payments is the right move to help workers, these payments cannot continue forever “given the fiscal constraints that are on government at all levels.”
Albanese also said that the federal government would reinstate crisis payments for individuals under income support or study allowance affected by isolation requirements, based on News.com.au’s report.