Browsing: Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Page 15

A commission has slammed a sacked worker's "ridiculous" pre-dismissal template letter to her employer demanding assurances on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, stressing that many "ex-employees" have used these types of letters "to their demise".

Employers have been warned, by both Safe Work Australia and unions, that they still have a WHS duty to protect workers from COVID-19 despite easing public health directions and orders.

A significant proportion of Australian workers believe their postures worsened after they shifted to remote arrangements for the COVID-19 pandemic, showing employers must act as hybrid work becomes a permanent fixture.

• New industrial manslaughter laws to follow SA election; and
  
• Large-scale COVID testing announced for WA FIFO workers.

A worker's offer to undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to show she did not have COVID-19 was not a reasonable alternative to being vaccinated, and her employer was not obliged to prove that vaccines were safe, a commission has found in upholding her dismissal.

Global software company, Salesforce, used an employee wellbeing approach based on the core values of trust and science-driven initiatives to successfully support its staff right through the pandemic, says its HR business partner, Anne Tosky.

Two companies have been charged, within a matter of days, in relation to separate but very similar fatalities involving shipping containers and stone slabs. Meanwhile, a union official has been accused of unlawfully ignoring a workplace's COVID-19 rules and safety signage.

A worker's social wellbeing is a major driver of their overall health, and employers will do well not to underestimate or under-resource this aspect of the employee experience, a senior Cisco manager has told a conference.

A number of employers' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic created suspicion among workers and damaged the "psychological contract", highlighting the need for "relational repair" and workplace safety improvements, according to research conducted with a safety regulator.

A commission has upheld the dismissal of a worker for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination, but rebuked his employer for its procedural fairness failures and "unconvincing" excuses that led to the worker not realising he had been sacked.