TECH GIANTS TAKE ON ZOOM; AUSSIE JOBS AND GETTING BACK TO WORK; COULD TRAVEL BUBBLES WORK?

TECH GIANTS TAKE ON ZOOM; AUSSIE JOBS AND GETTING BACK TO WORK; COULD TRAVEL BUBBLES WORK?

Welcome to today’s business and media intelligence, with insights collected over the past 24-hours.

COULD TRAVEL BUBBLES WORK? 

  • As governments look to restore mobility, one idea gaining favour is the creation of travel “bubbles”, binding together countries that have fared well against the coronavirus. The first bubble was due to come to life on May 15th between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Read The Economist’s full report here to find out the other potential country groupings or “bubbles”.

IN AUSTRALIA, CORONAVIRUS IS QANTAS’ BIGGEST COMPETITOR 

  • Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has announced a range of measures  to ensure the safety of travellers, from hand-sanitiser dispensers throughout airports to optional face masks and antibacterial wipes on board. However, one key aspect of the “new norm” is missing… there will be no social distancing on planes. Read more about Qantas’ plans to restart and combat the virus here(Subscriber access) 

AUSSIE JOBS AND GETTING BACK TO WORK 

  • The Federal Government is reviewing its suite of employment assistance programs as it faces big challenges getting unemployed, under-employed and disengaged workers back into jobs. Australia’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 per cent as the economy shed 594,300 jobs last month and as of this week, 1.395 million Australians are enrolled in the Government’s Jobactive program. Read more on what Canberra is doing in The AFR(Subscriber access) 
  • Investment fund managers, barristers, doctors and pensioners are among the growing list of people being paid the federal government’s JobKeeper subsidy, according to The AFR. (Subscriber access)
  • However, new payroll data shows that the rate of jobs being lost in the COVID-19-hit economy is slowing. And  earlier estimates of job losses have also been revised down, indicating the  JobKeeper scheme is working. (Subscriber access) 

REMOTE WORK – A LEGAL MINEFIELD FOR BOSSES 

  • Leading employment lawyers have warned that mental health claims from staff working from home  have been growing – and there is potential for discrimination claims from employees who have been told they must return to the office to increase productivity. Businesses’ obligation to provide a safe workplace has become far more complicated during the COVID-19 crisis, with employers having to juggle the competing occupational health and safety risks of staff working from home and returning to the office. Read the full AFR article here. (Subscriber access) 

WHAT, ME WORRY? TECH GIANTS TAKE ON ZOOM 

  • The tech titans are playing catch-up to Zoom, which claims to have more than 300 million daily meeting participants. Google last month announced that Meet, its video call platform, would be free to all users, while Facebook has rolled out its own rival tool, Messenger Rooms, this week. Read how Zoom plans to fight back, in this exclusive interview in The Australian: here(Subscriber access) 

POOL NOODLES TO ENFORCE SOCIAL DISTANCING RULES. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT.  

  • A cafe in Schwerin, Germany, called “Café Rothe Schwerin” recently reopened its business and came up with an ingenious idea to make sure the patrons keep their distance –pool noodles! The cafe is using pool noodles attached to customers’ hats to help them maintain social distancing. Read the full story and see the photos here.

Our daily briefing is not meant to be a summary of media coverage but rather, insights that may be helpful in understanding how organisations are communicating with stakeholders in a time of crisis – and what comes next. Sign up via email