National cabinet agreed in late June to mandate vaccines for aged care staff by mid-September,but the document says that could be delayed for whole regions where vaccine supply is limited.
“In some cases,a temporary exemption may apply to a region where supply of a COVID-19 vaccine was delayed or incomplete,” the document says. In “a very narrow set of circumstances” individual workers may also get exemptions if they cannot find a vaccine despite all residential aged care workers being given priority access to Pfizer.
States and territories are responsible for implementing public health orders to give legal effect to national cabinet’s decision but the Health Department statement says workers’ religious,political or personal objections to vaccination will likely be disregarded.
Nurses,personal carers,receptionists,cooks,maintenance staff and volunteers engaged by aged care homes will all be covered by the order but visiting tradespeople,doctors,pharmacists and hairdressers are among those outside its scope.
A spokeswoman for the Fair Work Ombudsman,which regulates workplaces,said it was updating its information as coronavirus vaccines were rolled out.
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“Further updates will be available soon” at itswebsite,the spokeswoman said in a statement.
“Our information will be guided by applicable laws and judicial decisions,enforceable government directions (such as public health orders) and advice issued by relevant Commonwealth,state and territory agencies.”
A source familiar with the work said high-risk businesses in areas where the coronavirus is spreading could be told the increased rates of transmission and illness justified mandating vaccines for their staff as more supply becomes available.
The Fair Work Ombudsman’s statements on vaccines are only advisory and it is up to individual businesses to test the limits of industrial law that allows firms to issue “lawful and reasonable” instructions to their employees.
Food manufacturer SPC became the first major Australian company to announce it would require its staff to be vaccinated,with the policy coming into effect in November in an illustration of the time businesses may have to give their staff to get a jab.
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Industrial commissioners have twice upheld employers’ decision to fire workers who refused a flu vaccination,once inaged care and once inchildcare,but no coronavirus vaccination cases have gone to court.
Discrimination law also applies to mandatory vaccinations but Mr Morrison said a briefing from the solicitor-general to national cabinet suggested it was unlikely to prevent jabs because it deals with characteristics like gender and race rather than medical decisions.
“It would be unlikely that a person being vaccinated or unvaccinated would be related to whether they are of a particular gender or have a particular disability or are of a particular race or something like that,” Mr Morrison said.
Unions have been wary of letting individual businesses decide whether to get their staff vaccinated,arguing that supply and paid time off are the keys to increasing vaccination rates.
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