Victorians who still have a job but have run out of sick leave will be given $1500 pandemic disaster payments to stay home for two weeks if they are at risk of having contracted coronavirus.

Mr Morrison said the forced closure of much of the state, which has put another 250,000 Melburnians out of work was not just a “terribly devastating day” for Victoria but the whole country.
“I know that, across Victoria, many today, frankly, would have reached breaking point trying to come to terms with what has happened in their state, what it means for them, what it means for their family, what it means for their businesses,” he said.
The fortnightly $1500 pandemic disaster payment fell short of a legislated workplace entitlement that the unions and Labor had been calling for.
On Monday, the Business Council of Australia joined the ACTU in calling for a temporary national scheme that was legislated and funded by the federal and state governments.
The BCA and ACTU said Victoria had demonstrated the danger of sick workers going to work because they needed the money.
But Mr Morrison said the scheme would apply only in Victoria because it was in a state of disaster.
“This is a disaster payment. If another state were to be in a position, and God forbid they were, then a disaster payment of this nature would be entered into.”
The Victorian government is already paying $1500 to workers on short-term visas short-term visas who are not permanent residents or citizens and have no access to JobKeeper or JobSeeker.
The federal government will pay the $1500 to all residents and citizens who are ineligible for JobKeeper or any other government benefit and have either exhausted all their sick leave or have no sick leave. These could include casuals and others in insecure work, as well as university workers who have always been ineligible for JobKeeper.
A single worker can access multiple payments.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the disaster payment was a step in the right direction but inadequate.
“This payment will mean that nearly all fulltime workers who are forced to rely on it will take a pay cut while they isolate. This will mean that a financial penalty still remains, this just weakens our COVID-19 defences,” she said.
The $1500 fortnightly JobKeeper wage subsidy will change on September 28 to a two-tiered payment of $1200, and $750 for those working fewer than 20 hours a week.
Under changes now being contemplated and which would apply nationally, the government does not intend to increase the rates but will soften the new eligibility requirement that a business must suffer a 30 per cent downturn for both the June and September quarters, or 50 per cent if annual turnover is more than $1 billion.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg indicated the June quarter test would be scrapped because many businesses would have recovered in June only to go backwards again in September thanks to Victoria.
“There may be some businesses that didnt have turnover that was down in the June quarter, so for example in May they had strong retail sales, but obviously now were in August and over the course of July these businesses have been badly hit,” he said.
“So were looking at the eligibility question for those because we dont want businesses that have been really badly hit through the September period but maybe not have met the 30 percent threshold in the June period, we want to make sure we can get support to them as well.”
The shared funding of the $1500 pandemic disaster payments looms as the first of other cost-sharing initiatives between the Victoria and federal governments after the Commonwealth insisted Victoria share the financial burden of its catastrophe.
Mr Andrews said he and Mr Morrison had discussed extra cashflow initiatives for Victorian businesses.
“That ought to be, and I’m confident it will be, a shared effort between our government and the Commonwealth government,” he said.
The impact of Victoria continued to dampen the national recovery. South Australia, which recorded just two new cases on Monday, reimposed restrictions on indoor gatherings while Tasmania postponed plans to open its borders to states like SA which posed little or no threat.
Mr Morrison also pledged that federal Parliament would resume the week on August 24 but there would be strict protocols to stop Victorians bringing the infection to the ACT and then having other MPs and staffers spread it across Australia.