‘You’ll die’: Staff at popular venue told to get vaxxed

The owner said he didn’t want his staff to become a “reservoir for that beastly Covid virus”.

A popular art gallery in Tasmania has become the latest workplace to make vaccines compulsory for any staff who wish to keep working there.

Hobart’s MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) art museum is the first business of its kind to mandate vaccinations after its founder and owner David Walsh sent a note to staff late on Thursday.

“I’m going to make vaccination mandatory for staff at Mona,” Mr Walsh wrote.

A paragraph later he added: “We’ll give you a decent interval to get vaccinated, and if necessary we’ll help you make an appointment.”

He also said: “Most of Mona’s staff are exposed to the public (although, at the moment, we don’t really have a public). Most people who visit Mona are nice, friendly and respectful. But there’s a small chance that each of them is a reservoir for that beastly Covid virus.”

Mr Walsh compared vaccines to traffic lights as a necessary evil, albeit a frustrating one.

It comes as Australia is trying to reach a vaccination target of 80 per cent to make lockdowns and border closures a thing of the past.

David Walsh has sent a memo to staff in light of the evolving Covid-19 situation. Picture: Matthew Newton/The Australian

“What happens when we want to undertake a journey, but a government-mandated intervention delays it, because, they say, it serves the greater good? Is that an infringement on our rights?” he wrote in the memo.

Cheekily, Mr Walsh meant traffic lights, not the vaccine.

“I’m talking about traffic lights. Today, while taking the kids to school, I had to wait for a total of six minutes while cars went somewhere else,” he continued.

“Of course I could have ignored those dastardly traffic lights, but ignoring them, potentially, has consequences.”

He said the Covid-19 vaccine was crucial because you having the disease had the ability to kill not just yourself, but someone else.

“Some types of risk are additive (every time you take a bath, there’s a small chance it’ll kill you, but there is no chance it’ll kill anyone else),” he explained.

“When you go to work unvaccinated there’s a small chance you’ll get Covid and an even smaller chance you’ll die.

“But each time you take that risk there is a small chance you’ll kill someone else (it’s multiplicative). That’s not okay.”

Customers at the Mona art museum. Picture: Adam Gibson/Escape

This sandstone exhibit is an iconic feature at Mona.

Mr Walsh’s move makes Mona the first art gallery to mandate vaccines, however not the first workplace.

Fruit and vegetable canned food company SPC was the first Australian company to mandate vaccine for its staff on August 5.

On June 28, the Government also agreed to make the Covid-19 vaccination for all residential aged care workers compulsory.

Halfway through last month, Australia’s workplace watchdog gave the go ahead to employers in certain high-risk industries to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for staff.

The Fair Work Ombudsman said in August employers could require their employees to get the vaccine if the direction is “lawful and reasonable”.

Hotel quarantine, border control, healthcare and aged care workers are “more likely” to be required to get the vaccine, while a mandate for employees are working from home is “unlikely” to be reasonable, under the ombudsman’s ‘Four Tier’ system.

Supermarket employees and other essential workers in Sydney’s hotspots could be required to get the vaccine under the new advice.

The Mona art gallery could fit into a Tier Three category, as its employees are in a customer-facing role.

Tasmanian millionaire David Walsh made the memo publicly available.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week: “It’s not going to be compulsory to have the vaccine. We can’t hold someone down and make them take it.”

However, there are plans to put greater freedoms in place for vaccinated citizens once Australia hits the 70 and 80 per cent mark, which might encourage the more hesitant into coming forward and getting the jab.

At time of writing, six in 10 Australians aged 16 and over have received one coronavirus jab while 36.4 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

Originally published as ‘You’ll die’: Staff at popular venue told to get vaxxed