Melbourne print staff need travel permits to get to work

In the latest edict from the Victorian government, all staff travelling to work at print businesses throughout Melbourne must have an authorised travel permit, with matching photo ID, or face huge fines. 

Print businesses can download the official form from the Victorian Department of Justice by clicking here and scrolling down over the details of the scheme, before reaching the link to the permitted worker scheme template. It is the employer's responsibility to issue the permit.

The permit must be issued to staff on-site, and read signed by both the employer and employee. An employee may travel to work once, then can be issued with the permit on-site if they are not able to receive it prior to today. 

The permit is not permitted to be used for activities except going to and from work. The Victorian government has set eye-watering levels of fines for non-compliance. Staff travelling to work who do not have a permit and matching photo ID from today will face on-the-spot fines of $1652 for individuals and $9913 for businesses. If the permit is falsified in any way or carrying false information the penalty is up to $19,826 for the worker, while the business can be fined up to $99,132.

Staff are allowed to travel to work at printshops as print of all kinds is in Category 2 of the state government's industry listing, which essentially means they can work as normal as long as they have a Covid-safe plan in place. Inspectors are anticipated to make random checks on businesses and will have the power to close them if Covid-safe is being breached.

Permits are not needed in Sydney for travel to and from work. However, staff living in any one of the 12 LGAs in hard lockdown are not permitted to leave their LGA to go to a printer to work, with the sole exception of printing for food and beverage packaging. In addition, all staff anywhere in Sydney that can work from home must do so.