Unions Threaten Industrial Strike After “Emergency” Meeting

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) met on Monday with leaders from national unions to discuss “the ongoing health and economic crisis caused by the rapid spread of Omicron”.

The emergency meeting was called in a bid to ensure workers were being kept safe at their place of employment with appropriate safety measures.

Speaking after an emergency meeting of 30 unions, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said that unions would write to all employers warning them they have an obligation to do everything within reason to keep workers safe during the current Omicron wave.

Without significant changes to protect workers, unions have warned that employees will go on strike.

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It comes after Ms McManus delivered a scathing attack on Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week for not addressing the "devastating impact the latest Covid wave is having on the health and incomes of working people."

In a bid to support workers during the Omicron crisis, which has seen large numbers of people unable to work, McManus laid out four demands in a letter to Morrison, last Tuesday calling for:

1. Rapid Antigen Tests to be free and accessible for all. Until supply has been resolved, they should be prioritised for frontline and essential workers. 

2. Paid pandemic leave must be extended to all close contacts. Close contacts must include those exposed at work, not just in households. 

3. Workers be kept safe at work, including mask requirements to N95 or P2 standard, warning Scott Morrison that unions will fight any attempt to water down OHS laws. 

4. Broaden and increase support payments for workers, people out of work and businesses affected by COVID.

Meantime, the national employer association has hit back at the unions, accusing them of inflaming the situation, when businesses were already struggling to preserve jobs, let alone supply RATs which are hard to come by.

“It’s like being asked to fight a battle without bullets,” Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said on Monday.

“Until we get many millions of more tests into circulation, we need to look at reducing the testing requirements.”

“The idea that employers should bear the costs for potentially limitless test kits is unworkable and demonstrates the lack of understanding of the pressures businesses are under,” he said.

Instead Mr Wilcox suggested that employers should continue to take relevant measures to help keep their workers safe and their businesses open.

“While of course workers cannot be required to work in an unsafe situation, the ACTU’s threats of work stoppages are not appropriate.”

- Mr Wilcox

Despite Morrison expanding on critical worker quarantine rules, and with businesses already struggling to keep their doors open, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said many businesses lacked the funds and expertise to execute a "functional testing regime".

“When many businesses are struggling to keep their doors open due to severe staff shortages, supply chain constraints and a sharp drop in consumer activity, now is not the appropriate time to saddle them with complex testing regulation and extra cost,” he said. 

The call to arms comes as students and teachers are about to return to school, while Australia’s second biggest industry, construction is about to return to work, just as Omicron is predicted to peak. 

More to come. 

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