PwC staff must be fully vaccinated to return to office

The move by PwC comes in the wake of big employers from BHP and other audit firms to mandate a full Covid-19 vaccination policy for staff and contractors.

PwC has said that staff need to be fully vaccinated to return to the office.

Auditing and consulting major PwC has become the latest major employer to mandate a full vaccination policy for all staff, partners and visitors returning to the office and attending work-related events.

PwC said from early November its offices will reopen in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Parramatta and Newcastle.

“From the date of reopening, all partners, staff, contractors, clients and visitors wanting to access those offices will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19,” said Catherine Walsh, PwC’s Australia head of people and culture in a memo to staff on Monday.

“Similarly, partners, staff and contractors located in these locations will also need to be fully vaccinated to undertake any work-related travel, visit any client sites or attend work-related events”.

The move by PwC comes in the wake of big employers from BHP to Deloitte to mandate a full Covid-19 vaccination policy for staff and contractors.

From January next year the full vaccination requirement will be in place for staff contractors, clients and visitors at remaining PwC offices across Australia.

“Partners, staff and contractors located across the country will also need to be fully vaccinated to undertake any work-related travel, visit any client sites or attend work-related events,” Ms Walsh said.

“The decision to require vaccinations is based on our commitment to the health, well-being and safety of our people, our families, our clients and our communities, as well government health directives.”

Ms Walsh noted that 97 per cent of respondents in a recent internal PwC Covid-19 vaccination survey (which captured 66 per cent partners and staff) indicated they were planning to be vaccinated by 31 December 2021.

The PwC policy comes just a week after the big four auditing firms – Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC – joined forces to launch a campaign supporting the government’s national vaccination targets by touting the benefit that lifting lockdowns and reopening Australia’s international borders will have on the economy.

The “Vax Return” campaign will provide businesses with information they can unlock when the national vaccination targets are reached, with the chief economists of the four firms jointly estimating the economy will gain $30bn within three months of opening.

The four firms have been proactively encouraging their staff to get vaccinated through a mix of incentives, special leave days, and planned workplace vaccine programs. KPMG has mandated Covid-19 vaccines for staff working in its Sydney and Melbourne offices, in line with state guidlines, but will not make them compulsory for its wider workforce.

Mining giant BHP said last week it would introduce mandatory vaccination as a condition of entry to its sites and offices across the country.

“The science is clear that widespread vaccination saves lives,” BHP Minerals Australia president Edgar Basto said on Thursday, as the company moved to put the new rules by no later than January 31.

“In line with government guidance, we recognise the path forward is through widespread vaccination in Australia and we are looking at a range of practical ways to support that while protecting communities and workforces.

“We have undertaken a thorough assessment and believe that this is the right path forward to protect the health of our people, their families and the communities where we operate – including remote Indigenous communities – while continuing to safely run our operations.

“We know this will raise questions for some, and we will work closely with our workforce as we go through the process of implementing these controls at our workplaces.”

BHP will prioritise the measure for all workers and visitors to be fully vaccinated at its workplaces in NSW, including the Mount Arthur coal mine.

The company, which will comply with recently announced public health orders for the resources sector in Western Australia and Victoria, recently set-up regional vaccine programs in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and WA.