Employees shall be granted a two-week paid leave whenever required by their employers.
Within the Fair Work Commission decision, aged care workers will be given paid pandemic leave.
The new ruling was grounded upon the assessment of the five commissioners that found out that residential aged care employees should self-isolate considering their exposure to larger risk.
It was outlined in the decisions that employees who would be required by their employer or any medical authority to self-isolate due to COVID-19 symptoms shall be given the appropriate 2-week paid leave.
The decision covers as well as workers who were employed on a regular and systematic basis. Employees under this set up are entitled to receive an average of their earnings for the past six weeks. However, it does not cover workers who can perform remote tasks during self-isolation.
FWC found out that the pandemic caused financial distress to many residential aged care workers. It was heightened by the fact that they were not able to receive paid leave.
The commission said that employee self-isolation can prevent the spread of COVID-19 considering that they were close to aged persons who are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.
Since April, the Australian Council of Trade has been pushing for the government’s approval of paid pandemic leave.
Although the Victorian government provided a $300 hardship payment, the government is yet to consider the universal right status of paid pandemic leave.
Employer groups including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry rejected the idea because they consider it unfunded and unrecoverable.
FWC pointed out that aged care providers can recover from the funding as provided by the federal government. The commission said that they are confident in how such a discussion may proceed between the commonwealth and the industry.
Sally McManus, the incumbent ACTU secretary pointed out that every worker should receive the paid pandemic leave.
She said that paid pandemic leave should not be limited to aged care workers only. Instead, it must be given to all workers who were affected by the pandemic. She pointed out that the federal government would be the prime deciding body about such matters.
