The Victorian government will give major warehouses and distributions an extra 48 hours to comply with a lockdown requirement to reduce their staffing to two-thirds of their normal levels.
Virgin Australia's new owner Bain Capital says it will retain about 6000 of 9000 direct jobs, with stood-down employees staying on JobKeeper until March as the airline plots a future based on core domestic and short-haul international routes.
Melbourne employers and employees face fines of up to nearly $100,000 and $20,000 respectively for breaching requirements of the State's worker permit scheme due to commence with stage 4 restrictions imposed from 11.59pm tonight.
The Victorian government is poised to implement a system of written permits for essential workers, the production of which on request will be needed once a range of Melbourne businesses are required to close from midnight tomorrow.
The Victorian government has this afternoon unveiled "heartbreaking" closures and restrictions on workplaces requiring the stand down of another 250,000 of the State's workers.
About 240 Woolworths warehouse workers have stopped work at a Melbourne distribution centre over safety concerns after a positive COVID-19 case on Friday night.
The ACTU has thrown its support behind a push for a COVID-19 "vulnerable worker" payment where at-risk employees could voluntarily stay at home and continue to be paid in full.
In what represents a breach of some of the strictest workplace biosecurity controls in the country, a $315 million apartment project in Melbourne's CBD has been shut for a "hospital grade" clean after 12 coronavirus cases were confirmed among construction workers.
