Hello members,

Tomorrow, the Victorian Government will introduce the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Bill 2020 into Parliament. As well as a raft of other measures, the bill provides support to people who have been injured at work and are unable to return or find employment due to the impacts of their injury and coronavirus. It provides up to six additional months of weekly WorkCover payments for long term injured workers who are due to transition off WorkCover weekly payments. This will be backdated to apply to anyone who has received notice from 1 December 2019 about the termination of their payments at 130 weeks.

If this bill passes, this what this means for members currently accessing WorkCover payments is you’ll be able to apply to extend your payments. We’ll keep members up to date on the outcome of the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Bill 2020 when more information becomes available. You can read more about the bill here.

Earlier today the Government provided an update on unemployment modelling for Victoria. They estimate that unemployment will peak in September 2020 with upwards of 270,000 Victorians or 11% of the working population out of work. With months ahead of likely increasing unemployment, it’s never been a better time to be a union member. While most HACSU members work in essential services, it’s still crucial to ensure your rights at work. Talk to your colleagues today about the importance of being a HACSU member.

For your friends and family who aren’t working in the health and community services sector, it’s also important to be part of a trade union. Go to australianunions.org.au to find out which union represents your family and friends.

HACSU supports the 16,000 Australian workers effected by the current state of Virgin Airlines. You can show your solidarity to these workers and ask the Government to SAVE VIRGIN by emailing your MP today.

St John of God Health Care contacted HACSU today to advise they will be re-introducing elective surgeries from April 27th. The re-introduction will happen slowly, with a staggered re-introduction so as not to overwhelm the service or potential need for ICU beds.

We also wanted to alert members that we’ll be moving the Daily Member Update to the Member MyPage. Your Member MyPage is a space just for you, where you can update your membership details, download helpful factsheets and read the latest HACSU news updates.

We’re continuing to keep members updated but we’re aware that this fantastic benefit that we want to provide only to HACSU members. If you haven’t logged into MyPage before, click here to view instructions on logging in for the first time. 

In unity,

HACSU.