Melbourne abattoir employee Eh Choe, 38, has been home sick with coronavirus for the previous 2 weeks, isolating in a separate room of his house away from the rest of his family.
Bottom line:
- Eh Choe works for meat-processing plant JBS in Melbourne and contracted coronavirus
- While isolating at home, his days off were counted as yearly leave rather than sick leave
- JBS states any employee with coronavirus is entitled to get ill leave
But regardless of needing to separate in your home, Mr Choe told 7.30 his time off work has actually been deducted from his yearly leave, instead of his authorized leave.
He operates at the JBS meat-processing plant in Brooklyn in the city’s west, which has actually been connected to 82 cases of the infection.
” I am drained from having COVID-19,” he told 7.30 through a Karen (a language spoken in Myanmar) translator.
” Although I am feeling a bit better, my energy is not back to 100 per cent.”
Mr Choe operates in the cold space at the factory, frequently moving between warm and freezing temperature levels throughout the day, so when he began to feel a fever, he thought nothing of it initially.
” The inside of my office is cold, however I would get sweaty when assisting other people or working outside. My body temperature would go up and down while I was working,” he stated.
” When I got house during the night after work, I got a fever and took medication. I felt my temperature going down a bit after.”
When he returned in to operate at JBS on July 13, the business had actually COVID-19 tests on website.
” I had a little a cough at that time, so I took the test, and the next day the result came mentioning that I am favorable.”
He informed 7.30 that in spite of being diagnosed with COVID-19 and requiring to stay home and recuperate, his work did not deduct his 2 weeks from authorized leave.
” I do have sick leave, I have more than 100 hours of sick leave. I saw [on my payslip] that