COVID-19
COVID-19 resources, guidelines and templates
In this section, we provide information, tools, resources, and templates to help you keep your organisation operating and delivering services while protecting the health and wellbeing of staff, clients and the community.
Business continuity planning
Your business continuity plan should contain all the information you need to prepare your organisation to manage disruptions and get your organisation running again after an incident or crisis.
It should include a business impact analysis and an incident response plan, with plan activation, incident response team, roles and responsibilities, communications and contact list.
If you don’t already have a formal business continuity plan in place, or you need to update it, visit the Queensland Government’s Business continuity planning hub for more information on what to include.
- Queensland Government: Business continuity plan template
- ACOSS: Template for a disaster plan for community organisations
- CSIA: Industry planning and preparedness
What to do if you can’t deliver on services
Contracted service providers should review funding agreements in the first instance, and investigate other ways of delivering on contracts, such as telephone or video calls in the event that face-to-face services cannot be provided. If you are unable to deliver on your contract/s, contact your government contract manager as soon as possible, to see if additional resources can be provided, or to renegotiate contract deliverables.
Industrial relations
Protecting employees and others in the workplace
Employers must have measures in place to eliminate or manage the risks arising from COVID-19. To do this, you should keep up to date with the latest COVID-19 information and advice to ensure that any action taken is appropriate. This includes closely monitoring the information provided by the Australian Government Department of Health, Smartraveller and advice from the Queensland Government.
When can employers direct employees to stay away from their usual workplace?
There is nothing in the model Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) laws that deals expressly with when an employer may direct an employee to stay away from their usual place of work. This includes when you can direct a worker to work from another workplace, including from home.
So far as is reasonably practicable, employers are required to ensure the health and safety of workers and others at the workplace. To meet this duty, employers must identify risks at the workplace, and do what is reasonably practicable to eliminate or minimise those risks.
Employers and employees should work together to find appropriate solutions that suit the needs of your workplace and your staff. This may include taking different forms of leave, working from home, or taking extra precautions in the workplace.
What happens if an employee or their family member is sick with coronavirus?
Employees who cannot work because they are sick with coronavirus can take paid sick leave. If an employee needs to look after a family member or a member of their household who is sick with coronavirus, or suffering an unexpected emergency, they are entitled to take paid carer’s leave.
Casual employees are entitled to two days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion. Full-time and part-time employees can take unpaid carer’s leave if they have no paid sick or carer’s leave left.
An employee must give their employer reasonable evidence of the illness or unexpected emergency if their employer asks for it. This will also apply to situations relating to coronavirus.
What if an employee wants to stay at home as a precaution?
If an employee wants to stay at home as a precaution they will need to come to an arrangement with their employer that best suits their workplace, such as making a request to work from home (if this is a practical option) or to take some form of paid or unpaid leave, such as annual leave or long service leave.
What if an employer wants their staff to stay home?
Under workplace health and safety laws, employers must ensure the health and safety of their workers and others at the workplace as far as is reasonably practicable. Workers also have responsibilities under those laws.
If an employee is at risk of infection from coronavirus (for example, because they’ve recently travelled from overseas, or have been in close contact with someone who has the virus), employers should request that they work from home (if this is a practical option) or not work during the risk period.
Where an employer directs an employee not to work due to workplace health and safety risks, the employee is generally entitled to be paid while the direction applies. However, if an employee cannot work because they are subject to a government order requiring them to self-quarantine, the employee is not ordinarily entitled to be paid (unless they use leave entitlements).
Employers should consider whether their obligations are impacted by any applicable enterprise agreement, award, employees’ employment contracts or workplace policies.
Employers need to balance their legal obligations, including those relating to anti-discrimination.
What about casual employees and independent contractors?
Casual employees do not have paid sick or carer’s leave entitlements under the National Employment Standards and usually are not entitled to be paid when they do not work. Employers should also consider their obligations under any applicable enterprise agreement, award, employees’ employment contracts or workplace policies.
Additional resources
- QCOSS template: Workplace guidelines for COVID-19 response for staff (Working from home)
- Workplace Health and Safety Queensland template: WHS plan for COVID-19
- Community Door: Business continuity planning
- Safe Work Australia: Small business planning tool
- Safe Work Australia: COVID-19 information for workplaces
- Australian Government: COVID-19 infection control training (free)
Workplace risk management
Pandemic risk management for business
Your obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act
During this crisis, it is important to remember your workplace obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld).
The Act is in place to ensure the health and safety of workers and others. Under the Act, employers need to ensure that the work health and safety of each of their workers and others is not affected by the conduct of the business.
As an organisation, your obligations include:
- Ensuring your employees are not exposed to risks to their health and safety
- Providing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment
- Ensuring safe systems of work
- Providing and maintaining safe equipment
- Providing information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure health and safety
- Putting in place effective health and safety management practices which protect visitors to the workplace
- Ensuring that all others who enter into your workplace, including volunteers, contractors and members of the public are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.
For more information on workplace rights and obligations visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
Mental health
Taking care of mental health is as important to recovery as other health and economic initiatives. The Queensland Government has launched a mental health campaign targeting Queenslanders who have been impacted by COVID-19.
It is critically important that Queenslanders take proactive steps to maintain and support their mental health and wellbeing and the Dear Mind campaign provides practical suggestions on how to do this.