So once again winter has rolled around in the neoliberal paradise that is Australia. This means big wool coats, scarves, beanies—and sick people not taking time off work. Cue the privileged scolds ‘helpfully’ reminding people that they need to stay home instead of spreading their sickness around the office and on the bus and train if they’re one of the 20% that use public transport to commute.

Aside from the garden variety colds (I am still recovering from one I caught two weeks ago), the klaxons are being sounded that this is going to be the worst flu season we’ve ever had. It makes sense to really impress upon people the importance of not ‘soldiering on’, not going to work sick. But SO MANY PEOPLE simply do not have the option of staying home, whether it’s through working somewhere with a draconian attitude towards the use of sick leave, or just plain not having access to it in the first place, due to being a casual worker/contractor or even in some cases, during their probationary period. And yet we’re still being encouraged to blame the workers who have no choice for spreading illness, rather than the system that gives them no choice in the first place.