Coalition urged to end vaccine ‘hunger games’

Aged-care providers and unions unite to demand aged-care workers be vaccinated quickly and safely with the Pfizer vaccine,

Aged-care worker Isabelita Tassone receives the AstraZeneca vaccine at Sunshine Hospital. Picture: Ian Currie.

Aged-care providers and unions have demanded nursing home staff be vaccinated quickly and safely with the Pfizer vaccine, declaring they “should not be left to navigate the vaccine hunger games like everyone else”.

In a joint statement, peak aged-care organisations, the ACTU and union leaders said they had been calling for fast action to vaccinate aged-care workers for at least six months but the government’s program had “too often led to disappointment, frustration, confusion and anger”.

They urged the Morrison government to incorporate five principles into the rollout strategy including prioritised access to vaccination providers near workplaces; paid leave to access vaccinations and to recover from effects or reactions if needed; targeted vaccine education and communication; and transparency and accountability on vaccine data and supply

Providers and unions said the government should ensure aged care workers were vaccinated “quickly and safely using the Pfizer vaccine only”.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler said the government has not delivered on its strategy to make aged-care workers the highest priority, and was “now using a ‘smoke and mirrors’ game to pin the responsibility on the worker”.

“But as we’ve seen with the latest Covid outbreak in NSW, the vaccine rollout in privately run aged-care facilities is not a game. It is completely serious,” she said.

“The government’s so-called plan for aged-care vaccinations has done nothing but increase confusion and, now for relatives of aged-care residents in NSW, alarm.

“Workers are still not guaranteed access to vaccines, whether on or off-site and there’s insufficient support or special leave provisions to manage possible side-effects or reactions and the need to take time off.”

Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow said aged-care workers should be a top priority, “they shouldn‘t be left to navigate the vaccine ‘hunger games’ like everyone else”.

“Our workers are already struggling in a very challenging work environment in the middle of a deadly pandemic,’ she said.

“It needs to be easy and simple for them to be vaccinated, protect themselves and their families and continue to care for and protect residents.”

Leading Aged Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney said it was “a national priority to do all we can to keep older Australians and the staff that care and support them safe from Covid-19”.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said aged-care workers and their unions continued to be frustrated by the federal government’s failure on the aged-care vaccine rollout “that has left their lives and those that they care for in danger”.

“The federal government must act urgently to mitigate the risk at this critical time, before we see another wave of Covid-19 sweeping through the nation’s aged-care facilities,” she said.

“We need in-workplace vaccinations and access to paid vaccination leave for all aged-care workers.”

Health Services Union National president Gerard Hayes said it was “infuriating to see workers treated as a scapegoat for the government’s vaccine failures”.

“We need an aggressive education campaign that points out the benefits of vaccines and dispels myths,” he said. “The federal government should give the PR stunts a rest and focus on the substance of empowering workers and employers to get vaccinated.”

United Workers Union aged-care director Carolyn Smith said since the announcement of mandated vaccines of aged-care workers “they have received little information and a lot of cloudy messaging”.

“There are reasonable issues that must be addressed to make this rollout happen. Yet once more we see the Morrison government dithering and bungling while aged care workers – now in fear of their jobs after the mandated vaccine announcement – wait for the full details of the plan,” she said.