Social Services Department staff at risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19 are being forced back to office buildings, the main public sector union has said.
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The Community and Public Sector Union has criticised the department for calling vulnerable workers back to their regular workplaces after months working from home to avoid COVID-19 infections.
However the Social Services Department said its decision to bring staff back to offices was consistent with advice from the Health Department and a direction from the agency overseeing the bureaucracy's workforce, the public service commission.
There are no active COVID-19 cases in the ACT, where most of the Social Services Department's 2300 staff work. The Health Department's Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has advised that vulnerable workers can return to offices with precautions in place.
Health experts have said it is safe for people at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 to return to their regular offices but that workplaces would need to adapt to the pandemic.
CPSU deputy secretary Beth Vincent-Pietsch said Social Services had called vulnerable people back to the office despite acknowledging they were at risk of severe effects from the virus.
Vulnerable workers should be able to decide whether they return to office buildings, she said.
"I am outraged that the department believes that it has the power to make decisions about the health risks of individuals," Ms Vincent-Pietsch said.
"We are not free from COVID-19. The recent situation in Victoria demonstrated that we are all at risk from this disease.
"If the work can be completed from home, which the last six months has proved that it can be, then those who are the most vulnerable during this pandemic should be the ones to make the choice to return to their workplace.
"CPSU members are concerned for their vulnerable colleagues who are being forced back to work in the middle of a pandemic.
"It is simply not good enough to acknowledge the risk on one hand, and take away autonomy over one's own health on the other."
Thousands of Commonwealth bureaucrats have returned to regular offices since August, when about 64 per cent of public servants were working from home.
A Social Services Department COVID-19 safety transition plan, seen by The Canberra Times, shows the agency's vulnerable workers outside Victoria and NSW would return to office buildings in October and November.
The reality is the risk of infection is next to zero whether you've got vulnerabilities or not.
- Associate Professor Hassan Vally
The plan also said it would account for the personal health circumstances of each employee and local case numbers.
"These, or other, factors may mean that some employees transition back to the workplace at a different time to other employees," it said.
The department planned to stagger the return of staff back to office buildings.
A Social Services Department spokesperson said all worksites had been reconfigured to meet the physical distancing requirements established by the national work safety agency, Safe Work Australia, and endorsed by the department's safety regulator, Comcare.
"The department does not comment on the personal circumstances of staff. The majority of our staff have already returned to the workplace," the spokesperson said.
"A limited number of staff may continue to work from home in the short term based on their personal health circumstances or the circumstances in their jurisdiction."
The Social Services Department did not answer a question asking whether vulnerable staff had a say in where they worked.
Is it safe to go back?
Health experts, while not commenting directly on the Social Services Department, have said the risk of contracting COVID-19 is currently low in Australia.
They said it was safe for vulnerable staff to return to offices that have safety measures in place, such as physical distancing.
La Trobe University epidemiologist Hassan Vally said the lack of coronavirus cases in the ACT made it very unlikely that workers would catch COVID-19 in the workplace.
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Decisions about where vulnerable staff work should be based on the risk of infection, rather than levels of anxiety about the coronavirus, he said.
"The reality is the risk is next to zero whether you've got vulnerabilities or not," Associate Professor Vally said.
"From a health perspective, people shouldn't be worried. You're still more likely to be in a car accident heading into work than getting infected with COVID. That's a big reality check in terms of what the level of risk is.
"It's a fairly reasonable decision to make, that where appropriate, people should be heading back to work."
Swinburne University medical researcher Bruce Thompson said there was space for flexibility about remote working when it did not reduce productivity, impose unacceptable costs and it wasn't essential for staff to be in the office.
However some roles required workers to be present at their regular workplaces, he said.
"We also need to get a job done, and we also need to understand that we have to have a certain amount of productivity," Professor Thompson said.
"Flexible work arrangements are really important, people have their individual needs as well, but then there may be a situation where it's 'actually for this job, you need to be here'. And that's not an unreasonable ask for people to be there," he said.
Old attitudes encouraging people to come into the workplace while sick should be discarded as staff returned to offices during the pandemic, Professor Thompson said.
University of Sydney infectious diseases researcher Robert Booy said Australia was at an important stage of its response to COVID-19.
"We've done so incredibly well at controlling transmission. Whether you're in Canberra, or Sydney, or Melbourne, coming back to work is a safe thing to do, provided you observe the social distancing, hand washing and other preventive measures."
Professor Booy said COVID-19 would teach workplaces more flexibility.
"We haven't reached the ideal position yet, we're still learning how to be productive and flexible and safe all at the same time," he said.