Coronavirus controls and restrictions have been stepped up across the country, with exemptions for certain workplaces and workers, while the ACTU's "name and fame" list of businesses providing special paid sick leave to staff is rapidly growing.
Keeping communications upbeat, holding virtual team meetings and reminding workers their EAPs are there if they need them, are key strategies for overcoming the harmful social isolation workers could experience working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a safety and injury management expert says.
Laws establishing a new safety regulator and transferring "serious" resources cases to the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor have passed in Queensland, with amendments. Meanwhile, a timely Bill mandating vaccinations for healthcare workers has passed in Victoria.
NSW has issued advice on commuting safely to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, while both NSW and Victoria have introduced tough penalties for those who breach new isolation orders, and Western Australia has announced special leave arrangements for public servants affected by the coronavirus, in a bid to maintain safe working environments and reduce the spread of the disease.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing social distancing measures and many workers to work from home, often at very short notice, employers must remember they have a duty to ensure working environments in homes and elsewhere are healthy and safe, a senior safety lawyer says in this Q&A with OHS Alert.
Employers have been urged to ensure workers diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19 don't have a financial incentive to avoid self-isolating and go to work, exposing their colleagues and community members to the risk of infection.
