The concern the retail union has about Victoria’s essential worker vaccine mandate

Victoria has mandated COVID-19 vaccination for essential workers, but the union representing retail, fast-food and warehouse workers says there’s one issue of concern with the plan.

Premier Daniel Andrews today announced all essential workers must have their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by October 15 in order to continue to work on-site, and must be fully-vaccinated by November 26.

National secretary-treasurer of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, Gerard Dwyer, says the union “has an issue in terms of timing”.

“We do think that the timeline is hasty,” he told Heidi Murphy, filling in for Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

He says health and safety must dictate the measures taken, but the supply of essential goods to Victorians must be maintained.

“We need to maintain grocery supplies to all Victorians and we’re all on the same page on that,” he said.

“We’re proposing another two weeks at least to allow our members to be able to access their vaccination in Victoria.”

Press PLAY below to hear the union’s concern

COVID-19 vaccination mandate for ‘hundreds of thousands of Victorians’