Anthony Albanese has doubled down on his claim that sick casuals don’t need leave payments as he faces his first major test as prime minister.
Anthony Albanese says workers don’t need pandemic leave because employers are already allowing them to work from home while sick.
The Prime Minister on Friday doubled down on his insistence that the government could not reinstate a $750 payment to casuals without sick leave.
“The idea that no one is getting any sick leave at the moment, it’s just not the case,” he told reporters in Fiji
“Good employers are recognising that people are continuing to work from home while they have Covid and are receiving, therefore, payments through that.”
The furore over the government’s decision to axe the payments is the Prime Minister’s first major test since the May election.
Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the government had received no health advice over whether the scheme should be continued.
“That was not included in (the health) advice. It wasn’t a matter on which they provided advice,” Mr Butler told ABC’s RN.
A snap national cabinet meeting will be held on Monday to discuss how to best deal with the surge of Covid cases.
Earlier this week, Mr Butler warned that millions of Australians could catch the virus in the coming weeks.
Hospitals and healthcare workers across the country are struggling under the immense pressure of increased admissions amid the Covid-19 wave.
There are more than 4500 Australians in hospital receiving treatment, with 139 in ICU beds.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was the first to publicly call for the meeting amid the “mixed messages” from the government.
“I think the country just wants to know how this wave is going,” she said on Thursday.
Mr Albanese will return to Australia later on Friday after spending the last three days in Suva for the Pacific Islands Forum.
He returns to what will be his first major test of his leadership after unions and members of his own backbench called the decision to axe the sick leave payment into question.
Speaking to Nine, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said she hoped Mr Albanese would back down.
“When you have a whole lot of people sick, the economy is sick … You can‘t on the one hand say people have to stay at home and on the other hand say you are not going to get paid and you are left with nothing,” she said.
“It is abandoning people and not the Australian way, we have to fix it.”
Originally published as Anthony Albanese says sick casuals should just work from home, not take sick leave
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