- Council of Small Business Organisations Australia want right to fire anti-vaxxers
- Staff who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine could be sacked as a ‘business decision’
- Council have proposed law changes to protect employers from any legal action
- Greg Hunt said the jab will be ‘as mandatory as possible’ but not illegal to refuse
- PM Scott Morrison on Wednesday said he had no power to enforce a vaccine
- Mr Hunt said government was not considering making inoculation compulsory
- But said authorities would have option of enforcing policies like ‘no jab, no pay’
Small businesses are pushing for the right to sack staff members who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available in Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week announced the government had signed a memorandum of understanding with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Australia to secure the promising Oxford University vaccine candidate.
The government hopes the coronavirus vaccine will reach Australia by early next year and wants 95 per cent of people to get the jab.
Mr Morrison said he would like to make the vaccine ‘as mandatory as possible’ but does not have the power to make it compulsory.
The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has since proposed law changes that would give employers the power to sack workers who refuse the jab.
‘If one of my staff members says, “no, I’m against it”, then I’m going to have to say, I’m sorry then, you are a threat to my business’,’ Council CEO Peter Strong told 7News.
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia want right to sack staff who refuse the coronavirus vaccine. Pictured: Barista Alex Pallas serves a customer a coffee and facemask at Eeffoc Cafe in Prahran in Melbourne
‘If you don’t sack them, you don’t have a business, especially if you’re in a high contact area where you’ve got a lot of customers. It’s not discrimination, that’s a business decision.’
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said unions have yet to finalise their response, but are encouraging staff to do all they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
‘Obviously that will include getting vaccinated when a vaccine becomes available,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt won’t rule out stripping welfare payments from people who refuse coronavirus vaccines – and turning them away at the border.
‘Our first goal is to encourage as many Australians as possible. I’m confident that a very, very large numbers of Australians will take it up,’ Mr Hunt told the Seven Network on Thursday.
‘But we reserve the right, subject to medical advice, to take steps that might assist.’
Under the Council’s proposal, staff who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine could be sacked as a ‘business decision’
When asked whether the government would consider refusing entry to non-vaccinated Australians returning from overseas, Mr Hunt said he ‘wouldn’t rule it out’.
‘If the medical advice is that it’s required I could certainly imagine that being the case,’ he told A Current Affair on Wednesday.
Mr Hunt said Australia already had persuasive ways of encouraging people to get vaccinated.
‘I won’t go into specifics beyond what we already have, but we have strong immunisation incentives which bring some of the highest vaccination rates in the world,’ he said.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth has said measures to encourage vaccine take-up such as banning Australians from flights, restaurants and public transport would be discussed by health officials and ministers.
Mr Morrison claimed he had secured 25 million vaccine doses for Australians, which was denied by the British pharmaceutical company tasked with manufacturing the Oxford University vaccine.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca said the letter of intent signed by the Australian government to buy the vaccine if approved did not include an estimation of the number of doses involved.
People protest during the ‘Wake Up Australia!’ march against mandatory vaccinations at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne on May 30
A healthcare worker prepares to conduct a coronavirus test on a patient at a COVID-19 testing facility in Bonbeach in Melbourne on Thursday
‘The LOI doesn’t go into any detail about costs or numbers or anything until we have an idea of what the manufacturing capacity is,’ the spokesman told Pharma in Focus.
The spokesman added no deal had been reached with Melbourne-based company CSL to produce the vaccine despite Mr Morrison saying the pharmaceutical firm would handle the Australian manufacturing process.
‘Discussions with CSL are ongoing. They’re still looking into whether they have the capability and capacity to produce a vaccine,’ the spokesman said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Dr Coatsworth had suggested authorities could give people certificates to prove they have had the vaccine.
Children have been required to take vaccines to attend school since 1998, unless their parents are granted an exemption.
Under the no jab, no pay scheme which withholds three state payments from Australians for failing to vaccinate their children, the government removed exemptions for conscientious objectors.
Some scientists feared that making vaccines compulsory could lead to public outrage and reduce immunisation rates, but rates slowly ticked up around the country from 2015.
Asked in a press conference on Wednesday how he will make sure everyone takes the vaccine, the prime minister said: ‘We’ll take those issues as they present and consider what steps are necessary at that time.’
Some people are unable to take the vaccine for legitimate medical reasons. Everyone else must be vaccinated to protect them, he said.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the first step would be to encourage people to take the vaccine voluntarily. Scott Morrison aims for 95% vaccination rate across Australia
Two women wearing face masks walk through Melbourne CBD amid stage four coronavirus lockdown sanctions on Thursday
The elderly and healthcare workers are likely to be prioritised as the vaccine is steadily rolled out, the prime minister said.
Infectious diseases expert Raina MacIntyre of UNSW said she doesn’t agree with compulsory vaccination.
‘It should not be compulsory. Depending on how effective the vaccine is, we would need 70 to 90 per cent of people vaccinated for herd immunity,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
On Tuesday night Science Minister Karen Andrews said she was ‘attacked’ by anti-vaxxers on Facebook and slammed them for spreading conspiracy theories.
‘Last night, my social media pages were attacked by anti-vax protestors,’ she wrote in a Facebook post.
‘While I support freedom of choice, in my role as Science Minister I’m not prepared to allow these people to promote pseudoscience.’
A patient receives a nasal swab at the Bonbeach coronavirus testing facility on Thursday
Under the government’s deal all 25 million Australians will be able to get injected for free just weeks after the Oxford vaccine is approved.
The vaccine, licensed by UK drug firm AstraZeneca, is in phase three trails on thousands of people in the UK, Brazil and South Africa.
Earlier trials found it generated a strong immune response and a four-fold increase in antibodies against coronavirus in 95 per cent of participants.
The federal government has signed a so-called ‘Letter of Intent’ with AstraZeneca in which the firm agrees to hand the vaccine over to Australia as soon as it is approved.
Australia will then make millions of doses on home soil and distribute them across the country.
AstraZeneca has already agreed to share the vaccine with the UK, the European Union and international organisations including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison watches scientists in the Astra Zeneca laboratory in Macquarie Park in Sydney on Wednesday
Australia will later sign a final formal agreement with the company, which will include details about the distribution, timing and price of the vaccine.
Scott Morrison said: ‘The Oxford vaccine is one of the most advanced and promising in world, and under this deal we have secured early access for every Australian.
‘If this vaccine proves successful we will manufacture and supply vaccines straight away under our own steam and make it free for 25 million Australians.’
The government is also negotiating to buy vaccines from other developers if the Oxford vaccine does not work out.
There are currently 167 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical and clinical trials around the world, including 29 undergoing clinical trials in humans.
There are three candidates in Australia – at the University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne and Flinders University in Adelaide – all of which have completed phase one trials.
A person wearing a face mask walks their dog along Brighton Beach in Melbourne amid stage four coronavirus restrictions on Thursday
Mr Morrison said: ‘There is no guarantee that this, or any other, vaccine will be successful, which is why we are continuing our discussions with many parties around the world while backing our own researches at the same time to find a vaccine.’
Australia is expected to spend billions of dollars on researching, buying and producing a vaccine.
Before the announcement of the deal, Labor’s health spokesman Chris Bowen slammed the government for taking too long to sign an agreement.
‘I am concerned Australia is way behind the game when it comes to getting access to the vaccine,’ he said on Tuesday afternoon.
‘It is incumbent on the government to take more steps – urgently – to ensure that we have those advanced supply agreements in place.’
The United States has six advance supply agreements, the UK has five, Japan and Indian have three, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea have one.
A healthcare worker speaks with a patient before their coronavirus test at the Bonbeach COVID-19 testing facility on Thursday
From No jab, no JOB: Bosses demand the right to sack their workers if they refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine when one is available in Australia – and powerful unions look set to back them By JACKSON BARRON and CHARLIE COE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA