The COVID 19 crisis is not over, home care workers are on the frontline working in the community with vulnerable members of society. Union members have won special leave, they are starting to get the PPE they need and have access to COVID19 virus testing. However temperature testing is still missing! Contact less thermometers can make a huge difference to identifying symptoms sooner rather than later in workers and clients. To ensure adequate work health and safety standards for workers as well as continuing to stop the spread of this virus, home care workers need temperature testing thermometers now!

Pharmacy employees are on the frontline of this crisis working to keep the community healthy. This means we are more likely to encounter people who have COVID-19, we are more likely to catch COVID-19 and we are more likely to need to self-isolate on more than one occasion. Professional Pharmacists Australia has filed an application to the Fair Work Commission to have paid pandemic leave entitlements inserted into The Pharmacy Industry Award. These measures will apply to both casual and permanent staff: 1. Where a worker is required to self-isolate, or is prevented from working by government decree, they will receive two weeks paid leave per instance. 2. Where a worker is infected with COVID-19, they receive an immediate credit of 20 days personal leave to take time off. To achieve this, we need the support of the whole pharmacy community. Now is the time for us to unite, we are all in this together.

The cuts being made will save very little money but are part of a misguided drive to continually cut spending in Public Health. One of the cuts takes 4 hours a day of labour from the Clinical Engineering Department, which will reduce the time the staff have to maintain essential equipment such as Defibrillators, Heart Rate Monitors, Ventilators, Oxygen Saturation Meters, Anaesthetics Machines and other essential hospital equipment. There are thousands of these machines at Prince of Wales Hospital. Another cut reduces the number of staff on call of an evening. These staff are called in to assist with urgent heart surgery. They must monitor machines such as Balloon Pumps, that help to increase the blood flow to the heart immediately before and after surgery. This limits their capacity to deal with multiple urgent heart operations of an evening. This will put lives at risk. Stop essential services being run down at this important Public Hospital. Sign the petition now.

The decision by universities such as MONASH, LATROBE, MELBOURNE and DEAKIN to defund cleaning contracts at this time has resulted in many cleaners being stood down without pay and, as many are international students, without any financial means upon which to survive. Universities receive large amounts of public money and rely on fees from international students such as those who have been stood down, this gives them a social responsibility for the conditions of these workers. Also, there is a continuing need for extra cleaning work to protect university staff from COVID-19. It is shameful that Australian Universities such as MONASH, DEAKIN and LATROBE who rely so heavily on the income they receive from international students have now left those students without any financial resources upon which to survive in this time of crisis.

These workers pick the fruit and vegetables we eat everyday, they’re in the hospitality industry, they’re delivery drivers and carers, they’re the backbone of our economy. The JobKeeper payment exists to provide a lifeline to those hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, how can the Morrison Government justify their decision to exclude over 1.1 million migrant workers, temporary visa holders and casuals? The Morrison Government does not address the very real public health crisis that millions of workers are facing. Asking them to ‘go home’ or raid their meagre retirement savings to survive COVID-19 is not only short-sighted, it’s racist. So many of these workers have built lives here and have made Australia their home and with borders closed, these workers have nowhere else to go. The Government must extend income support to all workers. Not doing so risks the entire community’s health and shirks Australia's moral responsibility to look after the wellbeing of all who are here during an unprecedented pandemic. The lack of support for this group of people shows that the Government treats migrants and international students as cash cows. They hire them for cheap labour and ask them to pay huge education fees, but when things get difficult, they wash their hands clean of any responsibility. This pandemic does not discriminate based on visa status or employment status, and neither should we. Everyone deserves to be safe. That's why we need Minister Ruston to ensure a wage subsidy for all workers so that all of us can follow public health advice and stay safe during this crisis.

We , like many other Australians have mortgages, rents, children , family that we need to support and we rely on weekly income in order to survive.

We are public and private health workers, aged care workers and paramedics in NSW and the ACT who are currently working on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19. We are proudly keeping our community safe through early intervention, testing, and treatment while also caring for some of the most vulnerable patients and residents in the state. We are suffering from a world-wide personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage that is needed to keep ourselves, our patients and residents safe. While we are seeing fights break out in supermarkets over toilet paper or loaves of bread, we are forced to ration gowns, gloves, masks and sanitiser. We've been asked to work with little to no PPE, which further puts the whole community at risk as we can not adequately stop the spread of the virus we are trying so desperately to eradicate. Without protection we are also putting our families at risk of exposure when we finally knock-off after a long day of protecting the family and friends of others. We can't stop this virus if we cannot keep ourselves or our patients safe. This is why we are calling for immediate funding and facilitation of the Australian manufacturing sector to produce this life-saving equipment. Australian industry will keep Australia safe. Brad Ross, Operating Theatre Assistant - Private Hosptial Tess Oxley, Paramedic - NSW Ambulance Lindy Twyford - Aged Care worker Doris Borg - Ward Assistant - Public Hospital

Students, backpackers and other temporary visa holders contribute to the Australian economy just like citizens... we pay our tax/ rent/ bills and Australia is quite unique that part of it's economy relies on backpacker tourism/ education/ farm work/ hospitality and professional workers (just to name a few) from temporary visa holders almost 3million of your 25 just so you get an idea. It's time to open your eyes and see the bigger picture. People are struggling who can't get home, flights cancelled, lost their jobs and kicked out of accommodation with visas soon expiring. There has barely been any mention of offering help or even preliminary extension of visas at the very least. New Zealand has offered some great help to temporary visa holders, well done Jacinta!! It is clear that help is out there however right now it is being ignored. Australia needs to be doing the same!! Can you imagine the spread of the virus if all temporary visa holders were to up and leave to their own country right now? No wonder our death toll is rising overnight still letting people fly in and out and also what kind of a hit would Australia's economy take even further if all of those people were to leave? Of course Australian citizens are the priority but what about the rest of us that you rely so heavily on? We've also been told to stay home and refrain from non-essential travel... so what is the right answer? I personally have been in Australia 4 years now- started as a backpacker and gone on to do further study whilst also working. I have been out of the UK long enough that the British embassy also can't help me. As a student I am taxed at exactly the same rate as Australian residents and all backpackers get 65% of their superannuation funds taken off them by the government when they leave the country... that's interesting isn't it. Never mind all the contributions other skilled workers/ visa holders/ New Zealand citizens make to the Australian system and are entitled to nothing or have no flexibility or consideration for their visas and situations at this point in time. If and when everything does go back to 'normal' not only will there be lots of disgruntled temporary visa holders who have not had a second thought if it carries on this way but also a lack and shortage of willing and skilled workers in which we fill the gap. The ultimate primary industry that Australia operates on is agriculture and labouring. How many of these people that work within this sector do we reckon alone are on temporary visas? Guess what else the Australian government considers a vital resource to Australian society which they intend to grow further year upon year... education. Yes it seems that of course we as temporary visa holders rely on Australia but but it also seems simultaneously Australia relies on us. A migration agent said to me earlier " When I write visas for sponsoring employer as a migration agent, I am required to provide submissions that neither temporary visa holder workers nor Australian workers are discriminated and they have equal pay. If our government instils that in order for these workers to fill skills shortages, especially in regional Australia, and grants them visas to be here medium to long term, why the government can not offer Jobkeeper option for each and every one of them, so the employer can continue paying these people who were stood down (ie CHEFS from Hilton, Mirvac, Sheraton, cafes/restaurants, etc.) for the example." It doesn't make much sense to me either... My visa expires in June and I've just lost my job where I've been working for 2years since I started my studies. I actually work in HR & Recruitment so part of my job is to help people including Australians find a job and bring in an income. Yet when it comes to me there is zero help for my situation and I'm sure I'm just one of thousands who feel the same way. I never miss a bill payment or my rent and I only just finished my studies last week which has cost me more than $10k+ all up which has nicely gone back in to the Australian economy/government and before you ask, no I don't receive financial help from my parents. In a pandemic like this we all need to stay where we are and help each other. I'm also from the UK which is part of the Commonwealth so really I'm Australia's neighbouring sister... does leaving a sister potentially unable to get home at risk of catching the virus and bringing it back to England where the death toll is out of control back to her parents (who are 60years+) when I've done everything right in regards to the system sound good to you? It sure as hell doesn't to me. It's best for me to stay put until all of this has blown over. In fact forget I'm from the Commonwealth, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are from we are all in this together. COVID-19 has affected each and every one of us. It's time we all pull together, help each other out, be kind and consider as many people as possible to pull through the other side.

Public sector workers provide vital services to our communities, and we need them more than ever during this crisis. These workers are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic- and the State Government needs to provide them with genuine support. While implementing special paid leave for workers, the State Government has mandated that any public sector worker who falls ill must use up their existing sick leave before being eligible for special paid leave. This is not good enough. These workers are putting themselves at risk to guarantee our safety. This State Government policy will increase the risk that workers exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 continue working for fear of being left with no sick leave in the future. We cannot ask workers to have to make this choice, nor is it safe for our communities. Sign now to support public sector workers. Sign now to protect public health.

I work in a public hospital and have to take public transport during this pandemic due to high parking fee charges. Many of my colleagues are in the same predicament and have to risk exposing themselves to the COVID-19 virus while they battle to provide essential healthcare services.

As the principal funder of disability services, the Federal Government has the responsibility to ensure services continue in a safe way for both people with a disability and the workers who support them. The Federal Government must take action now to ensure that people with disability are able to safely access services. The disability workforce across Australia are amongst those on the front line of this crisis, continuing to provide support and assistance to people with disability. Disability support workers already feel overworked and understaffed. There are also high levels of insecure, casual work in the disability sector. They must be better supported in doing their job and facing this COVID crisis – to ensure their safety and the safety of the people they support.

This is why student unionism is so so important. FUSA Student President Josh has been one of the few lucky student representatives across the country to get a seat at the table during my University's planning and response discussions for Covid-19. We've had some wins but unfortunately my University just isn't doing enough to support students during these unprecedented times. Students right across the country are losing their jobs, being evicted from their homes, or rely on family support that is no longer available. We need to do more, and we can