Five steps to take before implementing a mandatory vaccine policy

As each state government across Australia begins to unveil roadmaps out of lockdown contingent on vaccination rates, business owners are becoming increasingly anxious as to whether they are required to (or can) force their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

What we’ve seen in these roadmaps is that governments are putting in place mandatory vaccination requirements for certain sectors and locations (such as aged care and quarantine workers), and there are even some restrictions imposed for unvaccinated individuals in attending restaurants, gyms and other public and private settings.

Before employers go ahead and introduce a mandatory vaccine policy, we recommend businesses complete the following:

Five steps:

1. Categorise your employees

   Separate all employees out as per the below 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 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); and
   • 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).

2. Create subgroups of those tiers by location

   Separate all employees into the state or territory in which they work:

    
   • Victoria;
   • New South Wales;
   • Queensland;
   • Northern Territory;
   • Western Australia;
   • Tasmania;
   • South Australia; and
   • the Australian Capital Territory.

3. Analyse each sub-group

   Consider the following questions for each sub-group:

    
   • Is there a government direction in place that requires that subgroup to be vaccinated?
   • What is the risk of COVID-19 for that sub-group? (Look at community transmission of coronavirus in that state/territory)
   • What is the risk of COVID-19 for the people that sub-group interact with (i.e. are they particularly vulnerable)?
   • Are vaccinations available for that sub-group?
   • Are there alternatives? (i.e. is it an inherent requirement of their role to be physically working with others, or can they work remotely? Can we manage the risk with split shifts?)

4. Seek legal advice

   Written legal advice should be relied on by the business and will provide additional comfort on whether it can or can’t introduce a mandatory vaccination policy.

5. Make a decision

   After going through the above process, make a decision as to whether the business will mandate vaccinations (and for whom), or whether it will go down an alternative pathway (i.e. strongly encourage vaccinations, say nothing etc.).

   If going ahead with a mandatory vaccination policy, we recommend that you:

    
   • Prepare a vaccination policy (which sets out the practical side i.e. who is covered, timing of first and second shot, consequences of non-compliance, evidence requirements, and how you will store vaccination status information in compliance with any privacy obligations etc.);
   • Consult with your employees beforehand;
   • Distribute it to all affected employees; and
   • Regularly review the policy based on any new information.

Free tool

To assist employers across the country in navigating these vaccination challenges, Law Squared’s employment and workplace relations team have developed a free template for businesses to use when articulating their approach to vaccinations in the workplace to their employees.

In essence, this template provides businesses with a free legally compliant and best-practice vaccination policy that strongly encourages employees to get the vaccine.

It can also be used as a base for businesses to then tweak from there (i.e. make it mandatory, offer incentives etc.); however, we recommend seeking advice from a lawyer if doing so. 

Vaccination policy template

1. Law Squared’s free COVID-19 vaccination policy template

This publication is for your information and interest only. It is not intended to be comprehensive, and the content does not constitute and must not be relied on as legal advice. You must seek specific advice tailored to your circumstances.