Businesses in western Sydney have described their frustration and confusion at the rollout of the permit system for essential workers in the region, which has still not launched less than 48 hours from when it is due to be implemented.
The permits, announced by NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller on 20 August, are supposed to be used from Saturday by authorised workers leaving or entering an LGA of concern.
On Thursday morning, the link to apply for the permits said information regarding the permits will be available “soon”.
A spokesperson from Service NSW said the applications will be open from Thursday night, and that the process should take “a couple of minutes”.
“Service NSW appreciates the urgency of establishing registrations for workers entering or leaving an LGA of concern in providing clarity for affected customers and helping reduce the spread of Covid-19 in our community.
“For those who have an existing MyServiceNSW account, applications should only take a couple of minutes. Eligible registrations will be issued immediately after application, with the PDF able to be presented on the approved person’s smart phone.”
The delay in the rollout has left businesses and workers in the 12 LGAs of concern, covering more than three million people, in flux.
“It’s frustrating because we’re trying to do the right thing. We’re trying to follow as many protocols as we can, but it is pretty disappointing that the permit system is still not up and running,” Mouhamad Dib, managing director at MD Provodores, said.
The wholesale fruit and vegetable supplier, who has nearly 80 staff members, said the situation was making his staff anxious and leaving them confused about what they can and can’t do.
“Staff have messaged me saying, ‘we need a permit, but we can’t log on. Are we able to come to work?’”
“This is actually causing anxiety to a lot of the staff. There’s a lot of miscommunication. We’ve had a couple of staff members just say, ‘Look, I just need some time off because there’s just too many things changing all the time’.”
Dib said members of his staff, who work through the night to provide fruit and vegetables to venues and customers, have have felt “rattled” and “disoriented” by police who pull them over on the way to work.
“It’s really intimidating. They’re doing the right thing. They’re providing for their family and helping a lot of people at home.
“I call them superheroes because they’re the guys that are stepping out of the house every day and and serving the community.”
Dib said he’d created his own letter for workers to provide to police, explaining that they are essential workers and are allowed to continue working.
“We’re always trying to be ahead. I’ve taken the decision that I’m not waiting for the government to give me the advice. I’m coming up with it myself for my team.
“We’ve had to pivot and adapt to all the changing rules. I believe I’ve worked harder in the last two months that I have worked in the last 10 years.”
Businesses are also required to source and implement rapid antigen testing for workers who haven’t been vaccinated and are coming in from outside their LGAs.
A food manufacturing business based in one of the LGAs of concern, which did not want to be identified, said it had struggled to find the tests, and that they were exorbitantly priced.
“Our business has already been impacted by Covid, so the extra cost is obviously hard. We are essential [because] we supply the supermarkets with food and there’s significant cost attached to sourcing the tests.
“If they’re forcing us into it, I think the government should be suppling them – especially for essential businesses. There should be more support to it, or at least more thought to it. Just like with the permits, it feels like it’s been rolled out off the cuff.
“What I would have expected is that if the government was going to mandate these rapid tests, the government would give us a very clear location of where can we buy these tests. Even if we have to pay for it ourselves, where can we buy them? And how much are they?”
The business said it had been left confused by the daily announcements at press conferences of changes to restrictions, without enough detail being shared.
“We wanted to inform our staff of changes, and we had to sit down and ask, hang on, we don’t even know what we need to inform our staff about.
“When they announced the permits, there was nowhere near enough details shared. It was just pretty frustrating that all of a sudden we have these tests put on us and we had to ask, ‘Okay, so what? What does that mean for us?’”
The business said it was under increased pressure from customers to keep supermarkets stocked, but was struggling to keep up.
“All these changes are just causing disruptions to the business, it feels like we’re in shifting waters. Every few days, there’s a new set of rules, its so frustrating. There’s just a lot of pressure on us at the moment.”
