SPC chairman Hussein Rifai defends union criticism against its mandatory Covid vaccine plan

The SPC boss says “keyboard warriors” urging a boycott of the firm’s products over its mandatory vaccine strategy are using ludicrous scare tactics.

SPC chairman Hussein Rifai says he could end up in jail if he doesn’t ensure his workers’ safety. Picture By Ryan Osland

SPC chairman Hussein Rifai is standing firm on the company’s decision to ban employees who are not vaccinated against Covid-19, saying if he fails to keep his workforce safe he could end up in jail under Victoria’s industrial laws.

Mr Rifai is also not fazed about calls from “keyboard warriors” to boycott SPC’s products over its vaccination plan, saying he was putting his workers’ safety and the national interest first as the highly contagious Delta-variant lockdown Australia’s three main east-coast cities.

Mr Rifai hit back at Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus’s comments that employers should not mandate “medical procedures”, saying it was creating unnecessary fear, slowing the national vaccination rollout and preventing Australia’s return to normality.

“If we don‘t make sure that the working environment and the workplace is safe under the law, it’s not the unions, we are the ones who are liable so we make the decision,” Mr Rifai said.

“It is our personal liability. I can personally go to jail if I hadn’t protected my employees and created a safe working environment, just like every other company director under Australian law.

“Sally McManus going on and sort of saying this is a slippery slope. I don‘t think we’ve ever sort of said that we’re going to be doing open heart surgery in the back of the staff canteen with plastic knives. It’s just ludicrous the fact that they’re using that sort of a scare tactic and feeding into the fear.”

Industrial manslaughter became a criminal offence in Victoria - where SPC’s cannery is based - in July last year, with employer’s facing fines of up to $16.5m as well as 20 years’ jail for individuals.

Meanwhile the Australian government has set a target of at least 70 per cent of Australia’s population being vaccinated to end lockdowns - an ambitious goal given the national rate is around 16 per cent.

Mr Rifai’s comments came the same day the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said SPC had provided no clear answers to a list of 32 questions that union officials had put to the company about its “demand” that workers be vaccinated by November.

Questions put by the AMWU to the company include how was SPC guaranteeing supply of the vaccine and what vaccine was SPC intending for workers to access; what happens when a worker refused to be vaccinated, including on religious and medical grounds; would workers get time off if they suffered side effects, and if a worker became seriously ill or died what compensation was the company going to pay to their families.

SPC is the only company outside of healthcare that his mandating Covid-19 vaccinations - and as the Delta-variant locks down Sydney for the foreseeable future as well as extends Melbourne’s shutdown beyond a week and keeps Brisbane closed, compulsory jabs are shaping to become the biggest workplace battle over the next 12 months.

But Mr Rifai said SPC was not directing staff to a particular doctor or administering the vaccine itself, saying employees were free to obtain their own medical advice about the Covid jab. If an employee’s doctor did not recommend vaccination, the company would assess that on a case-by-case basis.

When asked what was SPC’s liability be if an employee had an adverse reaction, or succumbed to the one in one million chance of dying from rare blood clotting associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Mr Rifai said the company had obtained legal advice.

“We have 100 legal advice, obviously, it‘s privileged advice and I don’t want to be sharing the media.”

But he said the odds of being unvaccinated and dying from Covid-19 were greater than a fatal AstraZeneca jab-linked blod clot.

“If you go through the numbers of what the chances of actually somebody getting really sick and dying if you haven‘t taken the vaccine... the number is one 200 for people over 60, and one for 500 for people over 50.

“We‘ve got 500 staff, so the likelihood that they don’t get vaccinated, working the odds there’ll be at least one or two people that will pass away, and there are many more that will get sick.”

Mr Rifai said the company was working with the unions and its workforce to ensure they had the latest information about the risks of being vaccinated or not against Covid-19, and he was determined to stay the course of all employees having the jab by November.

He also said he had received messages of support from other Australian companies, who while encouraging their staff to get vaccinated had not gone as far as SPC in making it mandatory.

“There are two main concerns among the business community. One is the lack of clarity from the government... and where, where is it where it‘s safe for them to mandate.

“My view is any company‘s staff that do their work face to face and can’t do it remotely, I think they should be given legal coverage to be able to map it. That’s one thing.

“The other thing that a lot of people are afraid of, especially people who deal with the consumers, is basically what I call the extreme end of society - which you‘re going to get in every society - that still believe that vaccine is poisonous.”

Mr Rifai labelled anti-vaxxers a vocal minority and “keyboard warriors”, who were stirring up fear in the community and threatening the national vaccine rollout.

“They‘re on Twitter and Facebook, and being loud. One of them’s distributing a template for a sticker that they can put on to boycott our products.

“They’re the ones that believe someone is putting a chip in their arm to track them or some illuminati to create a world order - we have got a list of about 10 of these different things.

“They are the ones who are keyboard warriors for a course that‘s not based in science.”