Covid vaccine: Sacked teachers hopeful of similar ruling on mandates

Teachers sacked for refusing to get Covid-19 vaccines are hopeful of receiving their own compensation after this week’s landmark court ruling in favour of police and ambulance officers.

• Editor’s view: Accept umpire’s call

Teachers sacked for refusing to get Covid-19 vaccines are hopeful of receiving their own compensation after this week’s landmark court ruling in favour of police and ambulance officers.

More than 1200 public school teaching and non-teaching staff were sacked or stood down for half the 2022 school year under the Queensland vaccine mandates, before they were allowed to return for term three when the Department of Education’s mandates were lifted.

On Tuesday, 74 Queensland Police Service and Queensland Ambulance Service staff won their two-and-a-half-year legal fight against the state government, with Supreme Court justice Glenn Martin finding the QAS directive was ineffective and the QPS directive was unlawful because outgoing Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll failed to give proper consideration to the human rights of officers.

The education staff mandate was lifted on June 30, 2022, the police mandate was revoked on December 12, 2022, and the health workers’ direction repealed on October 6, 2023.

While education and health staff could apply to return to their jobs immediately, it is understood they have faced hurdles in this process due to their vaccine stance.

It is not clear how many Queensland Health workers were affected by the vaccine mandate and how many have returned to work to date.

The QPS has maintained a hard line approach, with officers and other staff who fell foul of the mandates remaining suspended without pay to this day.

Gold Coast music teacher Cherie Ishiyama was terminated in the 2021-22 school holidays by the private school she was working at, in response to the vaccine mandate.

She and six other Queensland teachers took action against the mandates in the Supreme Court in January 2022, with the case ongoing and due to be heard again on March 14.

Ms Ishiyama was able to return to teaching once the education staff mandate was lifted, but she said it has been a tough road back and she has only picked up part-time or casual work.

“It was really hard and heartbreaking, I’d been at that school for six years, I knew all of the kids pretty well … there were no goodbyes to the kids or teachers,” she said.

Gold Coast music teacher Cherie Ishiyama. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“I did Uber Eats for a few months, which was good for me to keep busy during that period.

“Then once the mandates were lifted, I was able to go back because there’s so much demand, but I’ve not found full-time permanent work like I had before.”

Ms Ishiyama said her legal team were considering Tuesday’s ruling and the potential ramifications for her and her fellow teachers’ case.

In separate legal action, dozens more state teachers found to have engaged in serious misconduct for failing to get vaccinated are reigniting their cases in the state’s Industrial Relations Commission, which have sat dormant for months, after the Supreme Court ruling.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said while the department was not subject to this week’s Supreme Court ruling, it was reviewing the judgment for any relevant impact.

No department staff had been terminated for noncompliance with the mandate.

“Unvaccinated staff were able to return to their workplaces at the commencement of 11 July 2022,” the spokeswoman said.

“As at June 24, 2022, the last operational day prior to the mandate being lifted, there were 549 teachers and 660 non-teachers suspended from duty for noncompliance with the employment direction.”

In comparison, as of June 2023, the QPS had sacked 38 people – including 16 officers – for refusing to get vaccinated under the mandate, while more than 200 were suspended.

“The number of QPS members suspended at any point because of noncompliance with the Commissioner’s directions on mandatory vaccination is 201, comprising 116 police officers and 85 staff members,” a police spokesman said.

The QPS would not comment on Wednesday on whether terminated officers would be reinstated, following the Supreme Court’s judgment.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the government was considering the court’s ruling.

“We’re currently considering legal advice. And obviously, once we’ve received that legal advice, we’ll then be able to make informed decisions,” he said.

“But it is important to highlight here that this was a decision (by the Supreme Court) about the process for a decision, not around the substance of the decision, and the substance of the decision was to get vaccinated.”