Coronavirus Update – 3 Day Lockdown For Greater Brisbane Area
From 6pm Friday the 8th of January until 6pm Monday the 11th of January the Greater Brisbane Area has been “locked down” by the State Government.
The Greater Brisbane area comprises of the following local council areas: Brisbane City, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, and Redland City.
During the period of the lockdown, and within the areas set out above the following restrictions have been put in place,
Everyone must stay at home unless:
- Shopping for essentials, food and necessary supplies
- Medical or healthcare needs, including compassionate requirements
- Exercise with no more than one other person, unless all from the same household
- Providing care or assistance to an immediate family member
- Work, or volunteering, or study if it is not reasonably practicable to work or learn remotely
- Child custody arrangements
- Legal obligations
- Visit for end of life
- Attend funeral or wedding in line with restrictions
During this period facemasks are mandatory when outside your own home. This means all staff must wear masks whilst at work.
Members should also note that the 4 sqm per person rule has been re-introduced and visits to disability accommodation services have been banned.
Child Care Services (including OSHC services) have not been specifically mentioned as required to close and therefore will remain open. Essentially we are back to where we were in April 2020 so we also recommend that members reintroduce the sign in procedures that were in place at that time (i.e. no visitors inside the centre, children are signed in and out at the front gate etc.)
Some operators may decide to close their services during this period. Please note however that this decision would not qualify as a situation which would enable you to use the ‘stand down’ provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 unless you are unable to operate at all due to circumstances beyond your control. Therefore, if you direct a full time, or part time employee not to attend work when they would usually be rostered, and your service could operate but you just don’t want to, you will have to pay that employee their ordinary rate of pay for that shift.
If an employee decides they don’t want to attend work due to the lockdown, they are not entitled to be paid for the shift they did not work. This is because they are not sick and are therefore not entitled to be paid ‘Personal/Carer’s Leave’.
Please stay safe and hopefully this short lockdown will not become protracted. As always, if you have any queries please contact the Employment Relations team for advice.