Staff shortages caused by Covid are pummelling the Australian economy, emptying supermarket shelves and closing shops and restaurants amid renewed calls for rapid antigen tests to be made free in workplaces.
While there is no hard data on how many people are off work because they have Covid, are isolating due to being a close contact or are waiting for a test, some companies are reporting that half of their employees are unable to attend.
Trucking and logistics are particularly hard-hit, as is the meat industry, which this week warned of shortages unless slaughterhouses and boning rooms were either exempted from health orders prohibiting close contacts from working or provided with Covid tests.
There are empty spaces on supermarket shelves in every department of the two big supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, as staff shortages hit every part of the supply chain from suppliers through to transport companies and the chains’ own distribution centres, which send products to individual stores.
In a return to measures last seen at the height of the first wave in 2020, Coles has limited sales of mince, sausages, chicken breasts and chicken thighs to one packet per customer in order to stop panic buying. Woolworths has yet to bring in buying limits.
Supermarkets are also reducing the range of products they sell in order to make life easier for their suppliers.
There are fears within the supermarket industry that some stores may be forced to shut or reduce their hours due to workers being unavailable.
While loosened close contact rules have made it easier to keep people at work, this extra capacity has been overwhelmed by the skyrocketing number of Covid cases, which climbed past 68,000 across Australia on Thursday.
Scott Morrison said testing requirements for truck drivers had been watered down in a bid to ease the strain on the logistics system while the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has spoken to supermarket bosses about the crisis.
The prime minister admitted the rolling staff shortages were taking a toll on the economy and said the federal government was focused on increasing capacity in critical areas including healthcare, distribution centres, food production and transport.
“We need truck drivers to keep on trucking, that is what we need to do to keep moving things around,” Morrison said. “And right now they are delivering vaccines to GPs and pharmacists, and that system is of course under strain because of the high case numbers.”
The prime minister has also asked the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, to meet with state governments to discuss loosening laws that require employers to maintain a safe workplace so that small business does not have to bear the cost of buying rapid antigen tests (RATs), the price of which has skyrocketed due to soaring demand and limited supply.
A spokesman for Cash said the Morrison government “will work with state…
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