Employers will have to eliminate numerous health hazards to comply with the government's COVIDsafe plan for workplaces.
Returning to the office after the coronavirus lockdown might be a welcome step back to normality for many workers, but those who worry about the potential health risks and are within their rights to keep working from home, employment lawyers say.
Mark Morey, secretary of Unions NSW, said staggered start times, split teams and "aggressive" sanitation efforts were critical for office workers."Hot desks are a smorgasbord of bacteria and should not survive this pandemic," he said. "Coronavirus lives on surfaces, as do many other germs. Workers really do need a space of their own."
An employee who refuses to return to work because of the coronavirus might be required to use their leave entitlements and then take unpaid leave, Joellen Riley Munton, a professor of law at the University of Technology Sydney.She also said absence for illness or injury that exceeded three months could justify termination.
Ms Myint's office is on the eighth floor of a building in which hundreds of people work and is accessed by a lift that is "always full". The office shares a kitchen with other businesses and items such as a grill and refrigerator are used by at least 20 people. Ms Kidd said employers should consider how to identify people who had had contact with someone with COVID-19, however, Professor Riley Munton said employers faced criminal penalties under privacy laws passed by the federal parliament last week if they required an employee to use the COVIDSafe app.
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