Aussie retailers crippled amid staff shortages

A survey in Australia showed that retailers are coping with staff shortages, with 76 percent having workers in isolation due to the surge of Omicron cases across the nation.

The survey, conducted by Australia’s peak retail body — the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) — and released on Monday, investigated thousands of businesses.

Half of them reported staff shortages, one-third reported being forced to limit trading hours, and 1 in 5 reported closing some locations due to shortages.

All citizens who are deemed “close contacts” — having spent four hours in a household with someone with the virus — are required to isolate themselves at home for seven days.

As such, surging rates of infection across the nation have forced swathes of Australians into isolation.

ARA Chief Executive Officer Paul Zahra said the survey evidenced that retail managers struggle to schedule sufficient workers.

“We’ve entered an unprecedented staffing challenge as more people are infected with Covid-19 than at any stage before in the pandemic,” he said, adding that “for small businesses, a couple of cases can wipe out their entire workforce.”

Ben Cowie, acting chief health officer of the Australian state of Victoria, said on Monday official figures show that 1 in 40 Victorians currently has the virus, but the actual rate of infection is likely to be much higher due to testing constraints.

Zahra called for governments to help ease worker shortages by providing rapid antigen tests to essential workers, streamlining the process of applying to return to work and allowing workers with a negative result to return to work as soon as possible.

“With workforce resources so constrained, we are asking for a focus on directing testing resources where they are most needed to support essential services,” said Zahra.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) joined the ARA’s call to streamline testing services.

“The safety of retail and warehouse workers is paramount as they work to guarantee access to food supplies essential products.

To achieve this they must have immediate appropriate priority access to free rapid antigen tests,” said Gerard Dwyer, national secretary of the SDA.