Sydney businesses call for workers be vaccinated before returning

Sydney’s 150 biggest businesses have a strategy to lift the city out of lockdown: Insist all workers be vaccinated before they can return to their jobs.

Sydney’s biggest businesses have called on the NSW government and major employers to require all workers to be vaccinated before they can work as part of a road map to recovery from lockdown.

The Committee for Sydney, which represents 150 of the city’s biggest organisations, also called for a phased reopening as NSW hits achievable vaccination targets that the business group wants the government to set.

The Committee for Sydney wants big businesses to insist all workers be vaccinated so Sydney can return to pre-pandemic levels of visitors, as seen here in 2019. Picture: Damian Shaw

And it warned waiting to hit a target of 80 per cent of the population being vaccinated before reopening risked “setting a requirement that we cannot achieve” or would take many months.

“There is no debate — the path out of lockdown is through vaccinations,” the Committee’s chief executive Gabriel Metcalf said.

“These recommendations are tough and absolutely necessary to get the city and state back on track.”

The Committee has consulted with government, researchers and senior staff from hard-hit industries such as hospitality, construction, retail and education to formulate its reopening strategy.

“We’re calling on the NSW government, as the state’s biggest employer, to require that all employees are vaccinated, and we’re urging other major employers to likewise make vaccination a condition of ­employment,” he said.

It also wants schools reopened, construction rebooted, and all social life moved outdoors to end a lockdown that is costing NSW $1 billion a week.

“We urgently need governments to provide a road map out of this cycle of lockdowns and pandemic controls, that means committing to timelines and achievable vaccination targets for phased reopening of the economy,” he said.

“Once that’s done, NSW should commit to reopening, regardless of stragglers who resist vaccination.”