‘Herculean’ task for employers after release of mandatory vaccine public health orders

Last week the state government announced mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for authorised workers.

Workers who haven’t received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by next Friday will not be allowed to work on-site.

Employment lawyer and founder of Workplace Wizards and Launch Legal, Mark Ritchie, says it doesn’t give businesses much time to prepare.

“The directions … have landed last night at midnight with about a week to go until they take effect,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“For such a far-reaching change, and requiring employers to have all of these health discussions with their very nervous workers, it’s an enormous amount of administrative as well as person-to-person work to do in a short week period.

“Employers have got to create this health register, securely store it, and get around and cite the evidence of each one of these employees by next Friday, so that’s going to be a herculean task.”

Workers who work on-site without getting the jab face fines of $21,000, and employers face $54,000 for failing to abide by the mandatory vaccination order.

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