IN LIGHT OF the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, Melbourne-based visual communication developers and tech start-up Piqify, have developed a unique app - PiqMeUp - which enables front line workers and businesses to stay emotionally connected with their teams, create an inclusive, supportive environment and keep an ongoing, regular monitor on the mental health and well-being of everyone across their workforce.

Co-founders of Piqify and creators of PiqMeUp, Luke Feldman and Shourov Bhattacharya are offering the PiqMeUp app free of charge to any business that wants to use the app to stay connected with their teams during this global period of lockdown.

“During this period of isolation that we are all experiencing as a global community, it’s incredibly important to maintain emotional connections with colleagues and employees to ensure that no-one feels alone, which is why we have created and want to share PiqMeUp,” Mr Feldman said.

“We really hope that PiqMeUp will also be used by hospitals, the police force and others working in the ‘front line’ to help them stay emotionally connected and make important, regular ‘check ins’ to monitor the mental health and wellbeing of their teams."

By using a universal language of symbols and uniquely designed emoticons, PiqMeUp makes it simple for people to give a quick, easy to understand ‘check in’ as to how they are feeling and their mental state.

“The PiqMeUp app utilises Piqify’s unique visual language to give businesses a platform that makes it easy for them to extend an ‘emotional check-in’ across their teams daily, or as often as they feel is needed, to make sure that their teams feel supported and connected at this time,” said Shourov Bhattacharya.

“PiqMeUp collects data ethically and securely to allow managers to monitor mental health, wellbeing and user feedback in real-time, making it an incredibly useful tool for this challenging time we’re all facing,” Mr Bhattacharya said.

PiqMeUp uses predictive AI and bot automated messaging to communicate to communities at scale and is able to escalate for those at risk. For instance, if an employee responds that he or she is not coping well, PiqMeUp automatically escalates this feedback to the appropriate manager so that support can be provided immediately. 

PiqMeUp can be easily integrated into existing organisation websites, intranets and portals, emails and other apps. 

“We hope offering free access to PiqMeUp for hospitals, the forces and any business around the globe that wants to remain connected with their teams will make it easy for people who aren’t coping with our current situation to reach out and get support,” Mr Feldman said.

Piqify

Piqify develops inclusive digital experiences for global customers and workforces. Piqify’s unique universal visual communication platform brings global enterprises closer to their customers and workforces. Using the scalable Piqify cloud platform, trademark visual language and patent-pending AI, global enterprises can create engaging and inclusive user experiences that easily integrate with their current systems. The result is 80 percentt less complexity for the user and 98 percent-plus comprehension across all culture and language groups.

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AUSTRALIA’s life insurers are taking action to help Australians on the healthcare frontline during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has announced a commitment on behalf of participating life insurance FSC member companies to ensure that frontline healthcare workers are not prevented from obtaining life insurance cover purely because of their exposure, or potential exposure, to coronavirus.

Frontline healthcare workers are a group who could be exposed to contracting COVID-19 and to this end, participating life insurers are making a commitment that their exposure, or potential exposure, will not of itself be used to:

1. decline an application for cover,
2. charge a higher premium, or 
3. apply a COVID-19 pandemic risk exclusion to any of the benefits offered,

subject to the relevant conditions and financial limits. 

Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology, Senator Jane Hume, welcomed the announcement.

“Our frontline workers are doing an amazing job in this crisis, and it’s vital that we’re ensuring their work won’t adversely affect their life insurance cover,” Ms Hume said.

“I thank the FSC and insurers for their responsiveness on this issue.”

FSC CEO Sally Loane said in developing this commitment, the FSC has ensured a broad definition of a relevant frontline healthcare worker.

“This means not only doctors, nurses and hospital staff but also those who may potentially be exposed to COVID-19 such as police, pharmacists, paramedics and age care workers," Ms Loane said. "While not everyone will be able to get new cover for other unrelated reasons, this commitment means potential exposure to COVID-19 alone won’t affect the cover these workers can get with participating life insurers,

“We hope this measure will help reduce any anxiety that our healthcare workforce may feel when working on the frontline. This is part of helping these Australians to have peace of mind for themselves and their families while continuing their vital service to our community.

"For people who had life cover in place before March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus to be a pandemic, our members have confirmed that there are no exclusions that would prevent the policy paying out for a death claim related to coronavirus, if you follow government travel advice.

"Australians can always check with their life insurance company, for individual life cover, or superannuation trustee for group life cover in superannuation, about their cover."

This FSC's commitment is subject to authorisation by the ACCC.

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QUEENSLAND's resources sector had made a smooth transition to tighter travel restrictions for its fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk which were introduced on Saturday night, said the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the decision to restrict all interstate FIFO workers apart from statutory positions and critical workers was working to change the interstate footprint.

“I’ve spoken with our members today and they are reporting significant drops in the number of interstate FIFO workers as of Saturday night with only critical workers approved,'' Mr Macfarlane said.

“I’d like to personally thank the Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young and the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy for working tirelessly over the past few days to process the statutory and critical worker applications.

“Arrow Energy is reducing its FIFO into Moranbah by about 30 percent while other companies are also cutting intrastate FIFO numbers and moving to full charter flights with temperature testing for intrastate travel."

www.qrc.org.au

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RACT INSURANCE today unveiled a Covid-19 Community Response Package to help the community not only protect their greatest assets but also keep their community groups alive, by making a $100,000 immediately available to assist community groups through the pandemic.

RACT Insurance CEO Trent Sayers said he understood Tasmanians were suffering considerable emotional and financial stress and RACT Insurance was committed to supporting the community through this difficult time.

“As Tasmanians we are all dealing with the far reaching impacts of Covid-19 on our community, our family and our businesses and we understand that as a local organisation we have an important role to play in supporting our community to do what we can to get through these unprecedented circumstances,” Mr Sayers said,

“In response, RACT Insurance has put together a $100,000 Covid-19 Community Response Fund round specifically focused on responding to the pressures our community groups are facing as a result of Covid-19.

“The Covid-19 Community Response Fund will provide grants to support projects which build resilience and support a community group’s ability to rebound post Covid-19 as well as funding to cover fixed costs which community groups continue to face even though their operations are currently restricted," he said.

“Local community groups make a big difference to life in Tasmania and will play an important role in rebuilding and bringing our communities back together once the threat of Covid-19 is over.”

Mr Sayers said RACT Insurance would be delivering on its promise to help protect customers biggest assets against unforeseen circumstances and damage with a range of support measures now available to make things easier.

“We understand some of our customers may be facing financial hardship because of the impacts of Covid-19 so if you have insurance with us and are experiencing significant challenges please get in touch with us,” he said.

“We have a number of options we can offer to support you, such as placing payments on hold, rescheduling payments or reviewing what’s in your policy including what it covers and looking for opportunities to reduce your premium.

“We can also look at payment flexibility including instalments plans or arranging instalments for excess payments. Along with the application of discounts or waiving of obligations for short periods of time.

“We are all going through this together so I would urge our members to please get in touch by calling 13 27 22 if you need help. 

“RACT Insurance will also ensure we extend this support to our partners and the many small businesses we work with on a daily basis.

“We have made a commitment to immediate payment terms for invoices of our preferred repairers and suppliers to support the cash flows of our local panel of suppliers and trades. We are also ensuring we maintain continuity of access to the work available across our local small businesses, repairers, suppliers and trades.

“As Tasmanians we are all in this together and we take our role of supporting our community through this difficult time seriously.”

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THE Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has joined with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to outline its shared commitment to working with tax practitioners and professional associations to deliver the Australian Government’s COVID-19 stimulus relief measures effectively.

The joint statement highlights the essential role played by the tax profession in helping the community to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and encourages tax practitioners to work with the ATO and the TPB in ensuring the measures are applied fairly.

TPB chair, Ian Klug, thanked the vast majority of tax practitioners that act with integrity.

"This is clearly a very challenging time for tax practitioners as they juggle the competing demands of dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their own business, while supporting their clients," Mr Klug said.

"However, in the current environment there is a risk of misconduct if tax practitioners defraud the stimulus package, intentionally or unintentionally.

"We recognise and appreciate that most tax practitioners do the right thing but where the TPB identifies a serious risk to clients, the public or to revenue, we will act to support the public interest.

"As always, we expect tax practitioners to work in a way that maintains the integrity of the profession and of the taxation system."

Mr Klug said that in applying the government’s COVID-19 relief measures correctly, they may need guidance from the ATO and the TPB.

He also said that a hotline (1300 362 829) and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. has been established by the TPB to enable tax practitioners to advise the TPB in confidence if they see misconduct occurring.

"The bottom line is that we want to ensure that those clients of tax practitioner services who are genuinely eligible for government relief are provided with it as quickly as possible, to safeguard the economy at this critical time."

About the Tax Practitioners Board

The Tax Practitioners Board regulates tax practitioners in order to protect consumers. The TPB aims to assure the community that tax practitioners meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct.

Twitter @TPB_gov_au, Facebook  and LinkedIn.

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THE International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have called on the Australian Prime Minister to do the “right thing” for the thousands of seafarers stranded on cruise vessels drifting off the coast of Australia.

On March 29, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “important that Australia does the right thing about those who have fallen into our care to ensure that I can say with great moral authority that Australians are doing the right thing, and we would ask you to do the right thing".

ITF president Paddy Crumlin today wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison appealing to him to show the same humanity to the men and women working onboard the cruise ships off the coast of Australia as he has expressed needs to be shown to the cruise passengers, and the same humanity that the US Government has offered Australians being repatriated from Florida in the next 24 to 48 hours.

It is estimated that around 314 out of 385 cruise ships that are owned and operated by the major cruise lines are currently laid up.

Many of the vessels have hundreds of seafarers onboard as governments refuse to allow them to disembark and transit through their ports and airports for repatriation. This is despite guarantees from cruise lines that they will charter flights to get the seafarers home.

Over 80 percent of the world's cruise ships are covered by an ITF agreement. ITF affiliated seafarers’ unions have been working with the ITF and its social partners to get the seafarers repatriated, but travel and port restrictions that governments have implemented have made this impossible with no solution currently in sight.

“This is not a sustainable situation,” said ITF Cruise Ship Task Force chair Johan Øyen. "Seafarers have the right to be treated with the same decency and dignity as everyone else.

"Governments have to ‘do the right thing’ and ensure that the thousands of men and women that have provided their services to the world’s cruise passengers are shown the same compassion and be allowed to return home.”

About the ITF

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of 665 transport workers trade unions representing 20 million workers in 147 countries. The ITF works to improve the lives of transport workers globally, encouraging and organising international solidarity among its network of affiliates. The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies that take decisions affecting jobs, employment conditions and safety in the transport industry.

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THE Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) is urging landlords to step up and create arrangements with their retailers that properly acknowledge the significant reductions in turnover occurring, as the Federal Government has done.

Despite newsagents, regarded an essential service, asking for sensible rent relief, there has been no attempt to do their part in making sure tenants can survive to continue paying rent in the long-term.

ALNA CEO Ben Kearney said, “We are imploring landlords to work with us on this to find a sensible solution now. This remains the big piece of the puzzle that is still unresolved and urgently required to make it possible for small businesses to go into a semi-hibernation state while very prudently maintaining essential services during the crisis and to not lose the capacity to come out the other side.”

Mr Kearney said there were more than 4000 lottery retailers and newsagents in Australia. They are an important and trusted part of Australian communities and approximately 35 percent of the Australian population visit these small businesses at least once a week (source - Retail Doctor Group Insights study).

“Their biggest immediate concern now to surviving this crisis, is their financial capacity to continue to pay rent to their landlords during the crisis," Mr Kearney said. "Many are reporting that they will have limited capacity to continue to pay rent over the several months it may now take before any recovery in customer visitation occurs after social restrictions are lifted.

“When they have reached out to landlords and their representatives as almost all have, and as the Prime Minister has suggested they do, to have a conversation about sensible rent relief and abatement to meet the requirements of their business in surviving this crisis and that is no fault of their own, they are consistently and overwhelmingly met with delay and obfuscation.”

Responses from landlords have included landlords asking tenants to sign a confidentiality agreement before any discussions can occur, delaying tactics, opportunistically cashing in bank guarantees, and chasing April invoices.

“The current COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our small retailers’ businesses in a significant way. Newsagents and lottery agents are not businesses with huge financial capacity or large margins. They are generally mums and dads, family enterprises, and first-generation Australians, who are having a go and working hard to make a success of their business."

Consequently, ALNA has written to the Shopping Centre Council of Australia to ask its industry to step up to support its tenants who can with immediate short-term assistance continue to provide good long-term income.

“We are asking for landlords to show some leadership and to genuinely partner with their commercial tenants, to help see them through this crisis by entering immediate dialogue and delivering rapid outcomes," Mr Kearney said.

"We are not asking them to go out of business, but to work on a common sense solution and the only reasonable option for both their businesses and their tenants."

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A FLAW in the Federal Government’s $1.6 billion package to provide free childcare services during the coronavirus pandemic could force the closure of council-run childcare services, forcing tens of thousands of families to scramble for new care arrangements, the United Services Union has warned.

While for-profit centres are eligible for the $1,500 per fortnight JobKeeper payment for each staff member, in addition to the new childcare funding, local government is not eligible for that money, leaving a massive budget hole.

Without access to the JobKeeper payment, the funding package fails to cover the costs of keeping childcare centres open, forcing councils to either pump millions of dollars from ratepayers into the services or close their doors.

The USU, which represents local government employees in NSW, is urging the Federal Government to immediately address the design flaw by ensuring council’s can access the funding needed to keep childcare centres operating during the COVID-19 crisis.

“There is no point announcing a $1.6 billion childcare package that promises essential workers that childcare services will be free if a major flaw in the funding model means centres in communities across the country will still be forced to close their doors,” USU general secretary Graeme Kelly said.

“The way this funding model works is by combining with the JobKeeper subsidy, which is being paid to commercial childcare operators, to cover the full costs of keeping centres open.

“But if the Federal Government fails to provide that $1,500 a fortnight payment to cover staff wages at council-run centres, there simply won’t be enough money to keep the services open, forcing parents to scramble to move their children elsewhere.

“Local Government is the largest provider of early childhood education and childcare services in NSW, caring for tens of thousands of children, yet all these services remain at imminent threat of closure.”

Mr Kelly said if the Federal Government failed to act then the NSW Government should intervene to provide the funding needed.

“The local government sector has been left out of much of the Federal Government’s stimulus funding, putting the viability of many community services at risk and threatening thousands of jobs,” he said.

“If the Federal Government continues to exclude the sector from key stimulus measures, in particular the $130 billion JobKeeper program, the NSW Government must act to ensure its ongoing viability.”

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