CBA, Westpac to launch staff vaccination trials

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac will begin a pilot program for employee vaccinations using AstraZeneca.

Lieutenant-General John Frewen to head Operation COVID Shield, holds a press conference after the National Cabinet meeting at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac will begin a pilot program for employee vaccinations using AstraZeneca following an agreement with the federal government’s vaccine task force leader, Lieutenant General ­Frewen.

The banks are considering starting the rollout for some 12,000 bank staff and their families in the eight Sydney local government areas that have been deemed hot spots, when they can access vaccines, potentially in the next week or so.

“I am very pleased the banks are taking on this task of doing it with AstraZeneca so they can learn all they need to learn,” General Frewen said.

He said he expected broader workplace vaccinations to get underway when more supplies of Pfizer vaccines were available in late September.

Westpac CEO Peter King said the bank was “pleased to be working with the Operation Covid Shield Taskforce to establish a pilot program to assist with the vaccination of employees”.

“It enables employees simpler and easier access to the AZ vaccine, if they choose this option,” he said.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said the bank was going to start offering the vaccine to staff in customer-facing roles in the eight LGAs from Monday.

“As one of the country’s largest employers, we fully support all of the efforts being made to vaccinate Australians,” he said.

“The national rollout program offers a clear pathway out of the lockdowns while helping the country’s recovery from the health, social and economic impacts of Covid-19 more quickly.”

General Frewen said he had told other big employers to start preparing to vaccinate staff, and he saw workplace vaccination programs as an “efficient form” of delivery which would “take pressure off” other forms of delivery.

He said there was “mutual benefit” in the government working with employers to deliver the vaccines to staff and families.

Under the agreement struck with the Frewen task force, the banks will offer the vaccine to staff in a way that does not draw medical staff away from essential services.

“We have to balance it carefully as we bring these other sorts of distribution points into play, like workplace vaccinations, that we are not stealing medical workforce from other areas already doing vaccinations,” he said.

“I don’t want cannibalisation across the available workforce. We will stay in close co-ordination (with employers) around that.”

The experience of the two big banks in handling vaccines will be studied by the task force and used as a template by other employers keen to be involved in vaccinating staff when they can get supplies.

General Frewen said plans to roll out the vaccine in the workplace could include using Perth airport as a vaccination centre for fly in, fly out workers in the mining industry.

He said this could be done using the mining companies. It follows a meeting between General Frewen and industry leaders in a “war game” briefing last week.

He also spoke via video link with representatives of airlines, mining and construction companies on Tuesday. General Frewen said there was plenty of the AZ vaccine available in Australia.

“There is no limitation on our supplies of AstraZeneca right now,” he said.

Many employers already gave their staff flu vaccines, but there were “a few more challenges” around the Covid vaccines, including how they were stored and handled, he said.

It is believed the banks are considering having doctors on hand for discussions with workers in the initial pilot program.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn told The Australian last week that the bank was keen to work with the government to roll out vaccinations for its staff as soon as it was given the go-ahead by the government.

General Frewen said there was now a “real sense of momentum” behind the rollout in Australia.

He said some 12.6 million doses of the vaccines had already been given out in Australia so far – up from 11.3 million a week ago.

“We are now hitting records of over 200,000 doses in weekdays and over 100,000 last Saturday.

“We are having more delivery points opening up.

“The pharmacies are coming into play now, which is really important.

“From here on, it (the vaccination program) goes faster, provided people in Australia keep turning up. That is the real crunch.”

The bank staff pilot follows the recent announcement that staff at supermarkets in the hot spot local government areas in Sydney could receive vaccinations at Sydney Olympic Park, while workers at distribution hubs in western Sydney are being vaccinated in their workplaces.