If Australia followed the lead of other countries who have forced businesses to close their doors to reduce the spread of coronavirus, casual worker Emma Cameron said she would struggle to pay rent.
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The 21-year-old Kings Meadows resident works for two small businesses in the hospitality sector for an average of about 40 hours week.
Because Ms Cameron is a casual worker, she is not entitled to paid sick leave and would lose all her current income if a government ban on businesses trading came into effect.
"I'm not really sure what I'd do because I live out of home and I have to pay rent," Ms Cameron said.
"If I don't have that income then I can't afford to pay it. I've also got car bills to pay, I've got phone bills, electricity and things like that."
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If she was prevented from working, Ms Cameron said she would probably ask her siblings to help pay bills and buy essential products.
"There's not really many options," she said.
"A lot of the time you don't have a choice in being casual.
"If all the businesses are shut, we can't work from home as you would if you had an office job."
Last week the federal government announced casual workers like Ms Cameron would be eligible for a payment of about $280 a week if they could not go to work or had to self-isolate because of coronavirus.
That amount is lower than Ms Cameron's normal income, will take about five days to reach her after she applies for it and stops flowing after two weeks if no medical certificate is provided.
Ms Cameron works at the popular Elaia Cafe in Launceston and her employer Ritsa Nicholas "absolutely" supports government assistance measures to help casual workers.
"It will impact them and us from a cash flow perspective," Ms Nicholas said.
The ACTU has called for two weeks paid leave for all workers who would be affected by a shutdown caused a result of the coronvirus pandemic.
"By creating a special leave provision, the government will be able to provide support for workers, their families and communities, confidence to business to operate during the pandemic and ensure that small business can stay afloat and not lay off their workers," ACTU secretary Sally McManus said.