Sanity Prevails !

Here we are, many weeks into this Coronavirus pandemic and only now have both houses of the New South Wales parliament finally passed a bill to bring relief to essential workers from having to prove that falling victim to the virus was work related.

Prior to this bill, gaining workers compensation relied on nurses, paramedics, doctors, school teachers and other essential workers proving they caught the illness in their workplace and not from the shops or other places in the community.

That was the sort of gobbledegook that was quite capable of delaying the payment of compensation and making life miserable for the front line people who actually tend to victims of the virus and expose themselves to infection by doing so.  It was little short of insanity to expect that people who work in hospitals or otherwise treat the infected in a pandemic should have to prove that this was the cause of their infection to legally claim reimbursement when the required isolation caused absence from their workplace.

This move was warmly welcomed by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, saying it was more likely that a nurse infected with COVID-19 would have contracted the virus at work. Nurses, Midwives and other health workers are putting themselves in danger every day.  The shouldn't have to go through a long argument about where they were exposed to this illness if they are required to take sick leave.

We have just had the tragedy of deaths coursing through aged care facilities because this pandemic is unusually fatal to those aged above seventy. An investigation is under way to try and determine how it gained entry and it is quite possible that a worker may have presented for work unaware that they were infected, or with misgivings about how absence would be treated on payday.   That " cause " provision hovering in the compensation fine print was an unreasonable contradiction when a symptom that might - or might not - suggest Coronavirus made an appearance.   The wrong decision would allow the pandemic to race away out of control.

In comparison with some other world countries we have had a lucky escape due to both isolation and  an early implementation of the lockdown.  It might be a very good idea to review the legislation that applies to working conditions across the board to remove any other unreasonable jargon that could  deliver unexpected results.   That old maxim about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted comes to mind  !