Retail and hospitality workers, health workers, transport workers, prison officers, teachers and others exposed to COVID at work are this morning rallying against the Government’s nasty decision to rip away their COVID workers compensation protection as MPs prepare to vote on the issue
The rally is happening behind State Parliament from 8am, with a doorstop at 8:30am
The State Government is attempting to repeal the law which gave workers the certainty and protection if they worked and contracted COVID they would not have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to prove whether they caught it at work or else where.
Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey said lower house MPs had the power to scrap this attack on our COVID heros.
“This heartless change of policy must not become law,” Mr Morey said. “This will force individual workers to carry the burden of COVID exposure just for doing their jobs.
“Dominic Perrottet, Matt Kean and Victor Dominello need to put their budget knives back in the draw and instead come and front the real workers who will lose their protection. I challenge any one of these ministers to eyeball a real worker and tell them why the Government doesn’t have their back.
“The Liberals live in a different universe to casual workers. They callously overlook that the most affected workers are putting themselves in harm’s way to serve the public. Overwhelmingly this will be women who have already borne the economic brunt of the pandemic.
“One of the ground rule of the pandemic was understanding the link between economic security and public health. That seems to have been torn up now that we have a new Premier.
“After trashing iCare, you’d think Dominic Perrottet might show a little remorse. Instead he is slashing workers comp yet again. The government should be able to walk and chew gum by supporting workers and small businesses.”
Mark Morey 0425 231 812
Nick Lucchinelli 0422 229 032
