VACCINATION
MEMBER EXPERT
Australian laws are not on the side of employers mandating COVID-19 vaccines, nor should they be With high vaccination rates rightly seen as the way out of this pandemic, mandatory vaccinations at work are increasingly discussed.
In most cases, employers will neither have the duty, nor power at law to require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
In August, canning company, SPC, announced a ‘no COVID-19 jab, no work’ rule, following the footsteps of Queensland carrier, Alliance Airlines. Other food processing companies are closely monitoring the situation while Qantas, Google, Facebook and Deakin University are already considering mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for their workers. As the National Cabinet affirmed last Friday, ‘Australia’s policy remains that vaccines should be voluntary and free’: In general, in the absence of a State or Territory public health order or a requirement in an employment contract or industrial instrument, an employer can only mandate that an employee be vaccinated through a lawful and reasonable direction.
Professor Joo-Cheong Tham University of Melbourne
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Image: Mat Napo/Unsplash
Sentry
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SEPTEMBER 2021
The National Cabinet also noted that ‘(b)usinesses have a legal obligation to keep their workplaces safe and to eliminate or minimise so far as ‘reasonably practicable’ the risk of exposure to COVID-19’. The National Cabinet also encouraged businesses to pay heed to the guidance issued by Safe Work Australia, the federal work safety regulator, and the Fair Work Ombudsman, the agency responsible for compliance with federal workplace laws. The guidance issued by these agencies, however, highlights that the law is not on the side of employer mandates. In most cases, employers will neither have the duty, nor power at law to require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. While this could be changed through
