Changes to mandatory surveillance testing
It was announced today that all authorised workers who live or stay in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA will now be required to get tested once every three days in order to leave their LGA for work. This will be enforceable from Saturday 31 July so our people who are now required to have this mandatory surveillance testing have until then to have their first test. You may like to use a testing site near your home or on your way to or from work and can find locations here.
For our people who live or stay in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA and are affected by the new mandatory testing requirements, from Saturday 31 July you will be required to complete our online COVID-19 Testing Declaration Form to show that you have met your COVID-19 testing obligations prior to the beginning of each shift.
The three-day mandatory testing requirements currently in place for anyone who lives or stays in the Fairfield Local Government Area and must leave the LGA for work are being relaxed so that this will only apply to health or aged care workers. This means for our people who live or work in the Fairfield LGA you will no longer be required to have the three-day mandatory testing and no longer need to fill out the testing declaration form at the beginning of each shift.
Please note - our people travelling to regional NSW from Greater Sydney for work are still required to have 7 day rolling tests also.
Under the updated Public Health Order, Transport has an obligation to make sure that all our people working on our services or anyone accessing any of our premises has undertaken a COVID-19 test within the specified timeframe and has proof of the test available to show on request.
Proof of testing – how it will work
To help make it easier for everyone who has to undergo mandatory testing and at the same time make sure we meet our obligations under the Public Health Order, we’ve developed a cluster-wide approach:
- For our people affected by the new mandatory testing requirements, you will be required to complete an online form to declare that you have met your COVID-19 testing obligations prior to the beginning of each shift.
- This form can be completed on a smart phone, iPad or computer and a paper form will be available where online is not accessible.
- You may not be asked to show evidence of a test each shift but you will need to complete the declaration to confirm that you’ve met your testing requirement each shift.
- An SMS text message or email from the testing organisation can be used as evidence that a test has been taken and you will need to have access to this at all times in case we need to sight it.
If you encounter any issues with the form or anything else, please contact the TSS Service Centre on 133 877.
Continue to come to work – testing
Testing of workers who are well and not displaying symptoms is called surveillance testing. In this situation where workers are well they are not required to self-isolate and wait for the test result. The idea is to identify the presence of COVID early even if the worker is not showing symptoms. This means if you are well and get tested you do not need to isolate until you receive the result.
Anyone who is unwell should not be coming to work and should get tested which is when they do need to self-isolate.
