Notícias da Austrália
Representantes sindicais de saúde e segurança discutem impactos da epidemia de coronavirus e ações sindicais pela prevenção e defesa de direitos de trabalhadores afetados
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
There is a great deal of information on the net, the radio, and the TV on the current unprecedented situation in Australia and around the world. However the information and advice is changing daily. We have a page on the Coronavirus Disease on the site, and will try to keep it up to date. Other sources of information are:
Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services Information page on Coronavirus. This is updated regularly and is the source for accurate information. Other useful DHHS resources are: a ‘self-assessment tool' [pdf] for risk of coronavirus’ to be used as needed.
From the ACTU Centre for Health and Safety a COVID-19 resource page. This page will be regularly updated to provide unions, HSRs and workers information on how they can protect their workplaces from COVID-19.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) hazard information page on our website.
Remember too to sign the Megaphone petition - we need as many signatures as possible before Parliament resumes next week. Sign it, and share it as widely as possible.
Things get ugly
COVID-19 is starting to affect people everywhere - we are all aware of the panic buying which has seen supermarket shelves empty of basics such as toilet paper, rice, pasta and other staples. Many employers are now organising for their workers to work from home (read more: Teleworking)
But there are many workers who are having to bear the brunt of public frustration. Retail workers have been abused, are under a great deal of stress and now at physical danger. This week a Woolworth's employee was stabbed while trying to collect trolleys in the carpark of the Rosebud supermarket, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The man was airlifted to hospital with a lower body injury. A Rosebud man has been arrested over the incident.
An angry shopper accused of striking a Coles employee with a stick in Brunswick on Sunday has also been charged. The 43-year-old man was held down in a citizen’s arrest by a group of customers at the Sydney Rd supermarket.
Read more: news.com.au
TWU advice to members
The Transport Workers Union, which represents many workers on the front line, has been providing advice on its website for members since early February when there were concerns regarding flights from China. Currently, it is providing advice to bus drivers and other members. Check the TWU website for updates.
International union news
TUC produces COVID-19 recursos para representantes sindicais (Union reps)
The UK's peak union council, has produced a guide Coronavirus/ COVID-19 Guidance to Unions for union reps. It is designed to give reps an understanding of the workplace issues in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide support in being effective at negotiating with employers steps that can be taken to best protect the health and safety of the workforce.
Baixe aqui a versão pdf
Global: Workers need coronavirus health, pay and job protection
Global union confederation ITUC is calling for urgent measures to ensure workers who show possible coronavirus symptoms have access to free health care and can take sick leave without fear of losing their jobs or their incomes. With the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning of a “very high risk of global spread and impact” of the disease, the union body says workplaces are ‘frontlines’ in combatting the infection’s proliferation.
“The WHO is warning of very high risk of global spread and impact of the virus, and workplaces are at the centre of containment and mitigation efforts. Many millions of people around the world have no right to take sick leave or face financial ruin if they have to go into isolation. That exposes them, their colleagues and the public to the risk of serious disease and can only accelerate its spread,” said ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow. “Along with all the other urgent measures required, governments need to ensure that employers provide time off without penalty for people who have symptoms, and to fill the gaps in social protection that make it difficult for people to stop work when they are sick. Never has the need for paid sick leave been more evident.”
ITUC said that while the infection risk is highest for health workers, especially where protective equipment and facilities are lacking or sub-standard, other sectors - in particular where large numbers of people gather or are in transit - can also be major vectors for transmission. Global union UNI also warned that “workers are in the frontlines of the fight” against the virus.
Read more: ITUC news release. UNI news release. Source: Risks 938
COVID-19 Medical journal editorial
An editorial in the journal Occupational Medicine has noted that a wide range of workers had ‘probable occupationally-acquired’ coronavirus, with 17 of the first 25 locally transmitted cases in Singapore (68 per cent) “probably related to occupational exposure. They included staff in the tourism, retail and hospitality industry, transport and security workers, and construction workers.”
Read more: David Koh. Editorial: Occupational risks for COVID-19, Occupational Medicine, published online 28 February 2020.
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