As from Tuesday 18th April 2020, the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme has been opened up to non-essential workers also.
This is a scheme for employers to get financial support to pay staff who cannot come to for and cannot work from home. This has been in place for essential workers only under alert level 4, it is now open to all workers (apart from state sector) under alert level 3, including self-employed and contractors.
A business cannot apply for an employee who is already on the wage subsidy for the same period of time.
Successful applications receive a four week subsidy per staff member on this scheme.
Worker eligibility criteria are case like:
- Workers sick with COVID-19 who are required to remain in isolation until advised by a health professional that they can be released from isolation.
- Workers who are in self-isolation due to close contact with an infected person. For example, a worker identified as possibly infected through contact tracing.
- Workers with dependents who are either sick with COVID-19, or whose dependents are self-isolating as a close contact.
- Workers who have serious health conditions themselves, or in their household, that put them at higher risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19, and who agree with their employer that they will not work for an agreed period.