As the Australian Government begins rolling out the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccine, AREEA is guiding its resources and energy industry members through the workplace implications and advocating for a nationally coordinated approach.

The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out will create various challenges and considerations for resources and energy employers, including those related to FIFO employees, roster arrangements and remote accommodation facilities.

More broadly, the potential for employers to adopt a ‘no jab, no job’ policy is likely to become the most significant employment law issue of 2021, and continues to attract increased commentary.

In an article in The Weekend Australian newspaper on Saturday, AREEA Chief Executive Steve Knott highlighted how FIFO industries would be “particularly disrupted if we see the states and territories go it alone, as they have done with border closures and quarantine matters”.

“A nationally-co-ordinated, uniform approach to vaccination requirements is of paramount importance,” Mr Knott said.

“It should not be left to employers alone to confront the legal and ethical issues arising from requiring persons to be vaccinated.

“We’re all in this together — government, business, the workforce and the broader community — but ambiguity does not work in our sector.”

States and territories begin to identify ‘critical workers’ for priority vaccinations

To commence the Australian Government’s COVID-19 vaccine national roll-out strategy, the states and territories have begun the process of identifying which workers should be considered “critical and high risk workers” for the purpose of receiving priority vaccinations.

There are two phases in the roll-out strategy where this is relevant:

• Phase 1a (the first phase), which has allocated 170,000 vaccines for frontline health care workers and quarantine and border workers (and may have relevance to AREEA members in shipping and ports);
• Phase 1b (the second phase), which has allocated 196,000 vaccines for “critical and high risk workers, including defence, police, fire emergency services and meat processing”; and
• Phase 2a (the third page), which has allocated 453,000 vaccines for “other critical and high risk workers”.

AREEA’s view is the vast majority of resources and energy employees should not expect to receive the vaccine any earlier than the general adult population (i.e. those who do not fall within the priority first three phases).

However, we are aware of AREEA members in select sectors who have already been contacted by their state/territory department of health (or delegated district health initiative) seeking information on employees who may fall within Phase 1b or (more likely) Phase 2a for vaccine roll-out.

The communication may include information related to inoculation centres and request personal information of employees who may be eligible for early access.

Any members who have received such correspondence and wish to seek AREEA’s advice should contact [email protected].

AREEA Member Guide – Workplace and workforce implications

To support members in this area AREEA has prepared a COVID-19 Vaccine Member Guide which provides updates on key developments with the vaccine roll-out and other workplace considerations.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Member Guide includes:

• Working towards a unified industry position on vaccination requirements
• Guidance on establishing your position on whether employees require vaccinations
• How to assess whether certain sections of the workforce should be vaccinated
• Support for managing employees who are unable to be vaccinated
• Other important considerations for resources and energy employers

AREEA will continue to update its members on material developments in relation to the COVID-19 vaccines and will circulate updated editions of this Member Guide as necessary.

Earlier this month, AREEA also hosted a 30-minute webinar on key COVID-19 vaccine issue.

For your copy of the guide, a video link to the webinar, or for any questions about vaccinations for your organisation, please contact 1800 627 771 or email [email protected]