Casual customer service workers at-risk of contracting COVID

A new Harvard University study in the US, has shown that casual workers in a customer-facing job are five times more likely to get COVID.

The reason is casual workers feel they don’t have enough hours at one place of employment, therefore work at multiple places increasing exposure to the virus.

Health experts in Australia are also concerned about this problem, particularly in the hospitality industry where many employees are casual and move between places of work. 

It is also feared that during the Victorian crisis, many employees that aren’t entitled to sick leave may have avoided getting tested as they feared they’d have to take time off work.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the hospitality industry has the highest casualisation rate at 79 per cent.

Secretary of the new United Workers Union, Tim Kennedy, said insecure work “does a lot of damage to a lot of people”. 

“People need predictable hours. They need to know they’ll be paid overtime and are paid casual earnings,” Mr Kennedy said.

He mentioned that there could be a risk of a third wave if there continues to be  a lack of sick leave in the hospitality industry as workers most likely won’t ask for time off to get tested if they feel sick.

“The facts speak for themselves: If you look at the outbreaks captured in Sydney, they’ve occurred in hospitality settings, they’ve occurred in restaurants, in bars,” Mr Kennedy said.

“Unless people have the economic security not to turn up to work and get tested and isolate it’ll happen again.”

Irit Jackson, 2^nd November 2020