The Australian Council of Trade Unions has released a list of demands in a bid to protect employees amid the fast-moving Omicron variant, including access to free rapid tests and N95 masks for all employees.

The union wants businesses to provide free RATs when they become available.

It comes after an urgent meeting of unions on Monday.

But the CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, said it was an ill-advised strategy.

“We were a bit puzzled to be honest, and you have to say that the ACTU has gone off message here,” he told Scott Emerson.

“I just think it’s very strange that at a time when business has really been hit by a triple whammy, where you’ve got supply chain pressures and issues, you’ve got great difficulty in getting many skilled workers to come into the workplace, you’ve got consumers with confidence being knocked around by Omicron, this is a tough time.

“We’ve got real economic risk out there at the moment, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic, to then be turning on businesses, particularly small businesses at this point, it just enhances the risk of a disastrous economic scenario for everybody.”

He said the cost couldn’t be shifted back onto small businesses who are struggling already and it was a “mistake” that governments refused to foot the bill.

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