Business SA’s Martin Haese joins with hospitality and tourism groups to insist on compulsory vaccination for staff

SA businesses say the state government needs to step up and mandate the vax for employees in high-risk Covid settings rather than leave already-besieged businesses open to litigation.

The State Government must step in and mandate vaccination for all staff in high-risk scenarios, to avoid a “minefield of disputes” with employees, a coalition of the state’s peak business organisations says.

Business SA has been joined by the Australian Hotels Association, the Restaurant and Catering Association, SA independent Retailers, Tourism Industry Council SA and the South Australian Wine Industry Association in calling on the government to make a call on the need for staff in areas such as customer service, and roles where social distancing is not possible, to be vaccinated.

The moves comes after desperate hospitality owners staged a mock funeral procession over the Covid restrictions that are killing their industry.

Not doing so leaves individual employers at risk of industrial disputes with employees as well as forcing them to negotiate with tens of thousands of staff across many of the state’s biggest industries.

It also poses the risk of businesses having to lose potentially several staff who would need to isolate if a team member tested positive for Covid-19, which could put the ability of the business to operate at risk.

“It is not acceptable to put the decision to mandate vaccinations on to the shoulders of tens of thousands of individual business owners,’’ Business SA chief executive Martin Haese says in a column published in The Advertiser.

Brett Lewis, general manager at Kooyonga Gold Course in Lockleys,backs Business SA’scall for the state government to mandate vaccination rules for hospitality staff. Picture: Matt Loxton

“Not only does it leave employers open to a potential minefield of industrial relations issues, but it could also put at risk the vitally important relationship between employers and employees. That is why we would like for the state government to make the call.’’

AHA chief executive Ian Horne said he wanted mandatory vaccination to be declared as a condition of employment across the entire hospitality industry so that employers were protected.

“The State Government needs to protect small and medium businesses from a potential minefield of disputes with employees,’’ Mr Horne said.

Tourism Industry Council SA Chief Executive Shaun de Bruyn said he wanted individual tourism operators to be able to focus on their business, not tackling the minefield of mandatory vaccinations.

“As the borders reopen, tourism operators want to welcome back much-missed interstate and international visitors. They need to be able to do this safely,’’ he said.

SAWIA chief executive Brian Smedley said employers in his sector faced challenges both across cellar doors, where staff were serving the public, but also on the production side, and needed clarity ahead of the upcoming harvest.

“In the cellar door, or at functions such as weddings or in winery work areas where social distancing cannot be reasonably achieved, it is really important that we seek to minimise business disruptions and to ensure we protect all staff and customers,’’ he said.

“But individual operators shouldn’t have to make this decision on their own.”

Kooyonga Golf Club general manager Brett Lewis said direction from the State Government would be welcome.

The golf club’s committee decided at a meeting last week that all people on site would need to have their first vaccination by November 23 when the state’s domestic borders open, and be double vaccinated by the time the general rate of vaccination hit 90 per cent.

“It would have been good for the government to have a mandate in place, but we felt it best to head in that direction and let our members know,’’ Mr Lewis said.

“We thought early communication was the best communication.’’