The Canberra Liberals have called on the ACT Government to recredit leave balances to frontline healthcare workers who used personal or annual leave to isolate.

“Healthcare workers have told me that staff who had already used personal leave for COVID isolation have not had that leave restored,” said Giulia Jones MLA, Shadow Minister for Health.

“This Labor-Greens Government needs to back Canberra’s frontline healthcare workers who have worked so hard to keep our community safe during COVID-19.

“This is simply a matter of equity and respect for our frontline healthcare workers.”

Mrs Jones’s plea follows last week’s announcement that government employees, including healthcare workers, would receive an extra week of COVID leave if they or a loved one or dependent were diagnosed with coronavirus.

Although healthcare workers could now access COVID leave before personal or annual leave, Mrs Jones stated that the ACT Government had previously required employees to use their personal or annual leave before accessing COVID-19 leave, and that managers had discretionally approved access to COVID-19 leave.

“This has resulted in inequitable access to the entitlement, and many healthcare workers have been required to use their exiting leave entitlements,” Mrs Jones wrote in a letter to ACT Health Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith yesterday.

Mrs Jones asked the minister to clarify if the government had recredited leave entitlements for all healthcare workers required to use their own leave entitlements when they had COVID-19 during that period; and, if not, to do so.

“This is just another example of the Labor-Greens Government’s failure to pay attention to the detail in health,” Mrs Jones concluded.

A spokesperson said the ACT Government was considering the conversion of leave, and was working through the options available to it.

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