Relief has arrived for the struggling NSW landside freight supply chains which have been battered by workers falling prey to Omicron-Delta and to being forced to isolate by NSW government rules. An amendment that entered into force today (Friday 14 January 2022) makes it abundantly clear that freight workers have an exemption from the isolation rules that enables them to go to work.
Empty supermarket shelves and extensive media coverage has indicated that there has been a problem with landside supply chains following the introduction of COVID isolation rules that came into force in December.
The Public Health (COVID-19 Self-Isolation) Order (No 4) 2021 required a range of different groups of people to self-isolate, which means not going to work, not using public transport, not allowing other people into their homes and basically staying away from other people.
People diagnosed with COVID were one group of people … and so were people who “reside with diagnosed persons” or who are “close contacts” – persons who had spend four hours or more with a confirmed case in a household or a household-like setting. Those contacts were required to quarantine for seven days.
Shortly thereafter, people actually falling sick with the Omicron-COVID variant and the ongoing isolation requirements began to take its toll on landside freight workers (and in other sectors too) such as truck drivers, warehousing staff, forklift drivers, container unpack crew and so on leading to widespread stories of empty supermarket shelves.
Government officials have been consulting with supply chain experts – Shipping Australia was one of those parties consulted and we informed officials that, to the best of our knowledge and belief, that ocean shipping continues to deliver the goods – and has since amended the rules. Shipping Australia also provided industry feedback that the isolation rules on freight workers were causing issues.
The amendment, which is the not-at-all-confusingly-named “Critical worker exemption from the Public Health (COVID-19 Self-Isolation) Order (No 4) 2021 (No 2)” exempts people from isolation requirements specifically for the purposes of attending work if approved by their employer and subject to a variety of other rules, such as wearing masks, taking tests and so on.
There are a wide variety of “critical” workers in areas such as public administration, health care, agriculture and so on. Critical transport workers (who are therefore allowed to go to work despite otherwise being in isolation) specifically include those workers involved with:
- seaport operations
- freight (air, sea, road, rail), logistics, postal, courier or delivery services
- export supply chain operators
- distribution of food, grocery, and sanitary products for sale by supermarkets, grocery stores etc
- retail premises that are supermarkets, grocery stores etc
- warehousing
