The Australian news ensures we all know the government strategies previously successful to eliminate Covid-19 transmission in the community, is not working with the current Delta variant outbreak. The Government’s focus is consequently now firmly on vaccination rates. With some business mandating COVID vaccinations in the workplace what are the rights & obligations?
With the Government’s focus having shifted to vaccination rates, the Doherty Institute modelling shows that current restrictions should only be progressively reduced when the population reaches the 70 – 80% vaccination rates.
With several industries under significant operational constraints given the restrictions, many employers have opted to mandate that their employees get vaccinated & have provided a deadline by which the vaccination scheduled should be completed by workers. QANTAS is an example of this. The question for many employers now, is can they do the same?
Australia’s current policy on vaccinations is that vaccines are free and voluntary, & employers can only direct workers to get vaccinated if it is considered “lawful & reasonable”. The Fair Work Ombudsman has recently updated its guidance information to define “lawful & reasonable” by dividing employees into four tiers based on different factors such as the nature of their role, the level of exposure risk, the effectiveness & availability of vaccines, whether employees might have legitimate reasons not to get vaccinated & other effective control measures available to employers for managing the risks of spreading COVID-19.
The tiers are:
- Tier 1 work – where workers are required as part of their role to interact with people with an increased risk of being infected with Covid-19 e.g. frontline workers
- Tier 2 work – where workers are in contact with vulnerable people e.g. health care & aged care workers
- Tier 3 work – where there is interaction workers and other people such as customers, co-workers or the public as part of their roles, e.g. retail & stores providing essential goods & services
- Tier 4 work – where workers have minimal face-to-face interaction as part of their normal duties, e.g. employees working from home
Where possible employers should take the approach of encouraging, rather than mandating workers to get vaccinated as this will minimise the risks of legal action taken against them by employees based on discrimination or unfair dismissal.
For further information, please contact us or refer below.
Source: FairWork
Title: COVID-19 vaccinations: workplace rights and obligations
Read Time: 10 minutes