Fair Work Updates Vaccination Advice

Further to my previous post Can You Make Staff Have the COVID-19 Vaccination the Fair Work Ombudsman has announced additional guidance on whether employers can make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory in their workplaces.

The guidance breaks work into 4 broad tiers:

• Tier 1 work, where employees are required as part of their duties to interact with people with an increased risk of being infected with coronavirus (for example, employees working in hotel quarantine or border control). 
• Tier 2 work, where employees are required to have close contact with people who are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of coronavirus (for example, employees working in health care or aged care).
• Tier 3 work, where there is interaction or likely interaction between employees and other people such as customers, other employees or the public in the normal course of employment (for example, stores providing essential goods and services).
• Tier 4 work, where employees have minimal face-to-face interaction as part of their normal employment duties (for example, where they are working from home).

Directing Tier 1 or Tier 2 employees to have the vaccine is more likely to be reasonable given the increased risk and impacts of transmission.

For Tier 3 employees, it may be reasonable to require staff to have the vaccine if the workplace is in an area where community transmission is occurring and needs to remain open despite a lockdown.  Where there has been no community transmission for some time, it would be less likely to be considered reasonable.

Directing Tier 4 staff to have the vaccine is unlikely to be reasonable, given the limited risk of transmission of the coronavirus.

More information can be found on the Fair Work Ombudsman site.

It is important that any direction is reasonable and lawful. Employers are advised to seek advice before making vaccines mandatory in the workplace.