Unions call for Covid vaccination leave for parents as children’s vax push starts

Unions have called on employers and governments to “step up” and provide paid vaccination leave for parents to get their children vaccinated. LATEST + HAVE YOUR SAY >>

UNIONS Tasmania wants paid vaccination leave so parents can take their children to get a Covid-19 vaccination.

From January 10, children aged five to 11 will be able to have a special paediatric dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said since the start of the pandemic, unions had campaigned for and won paid vaccination leave for more than 1.6 million workers in public and private sector workplaces.

“This new leave type was critical to supporting workers to do what the health advice recommended – get vaccinated for the safety of our community,” Ms Munday said.

“We’ve been told that children will be able to get the vaccination from January 10 and that gives parents less than a month to get their kids vaccinated before school starts.

“We need both employers and governments to step up here.”

Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Ms Munday wants all employers and governments to provide paid vaccination leave.

“Workers shouldn’t be forced to use other types of leave to get their kids vaccinated,” she said.

“We should also remember that because of Australia’s insecure work crisis, many workers in Tasmania have no paid leave of any type – 26.6 per cent of workers in Tasmania are casual, the highest percentage in the country.

“We worked hard as a community to get ourselves to the vaccination levels that we have and we should be proud of that, but we need to take the next step and make sure we’re truly supporting parents to access vaccination leave for their children too.”

Disability worker for 14 years Tracy Farley said it was difficult for casual workers, some of whom had missed shifts, to take their children to get vaccinated.

“I’m permanent and I took my 15-year-old daughter at the weekend when I wasn’t working but it isn’t fair for people to lose shifts or have to take sick leave or a day from their holidays,” she said.

“Workers shouldn’t be penalised if they are trying to protect their children and the community.”

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey backed the call but said it would be hard for some businesses.

“It’s a great idea but I’m not sure that many struggling businesses could afford to pay out of their own pockets,” Mr Bailey said.

“It would make sense to let people have time off to make it easier for them.”

The state government rejected the call.

“Vaccination clinics already run on both weekdays and weekends, giving parents flexibility and choice on when to vaccinate their children,” a government spokesman said.

Health signs off on childcare vax mandate after industry calls

CHILD care workers will have until January 8 to prove they’ve had at least one shot of Covid vaccine, with a mandate soon to be implemented across the sector.

Discussions were held between the state government and stakeholders on Monday, just days out from the border reopening on Wednesday.

“That includes long day care, family day care, outside school hours care, occasional care and in home care,” Public Health director Mark Veitch said.

“They’re often quite small operators with a small number of staff and small numbers of children.

“A small loss of workers from that service can disrupt the service to quite a number of children.”

Dr Veitch said vaccinating childcare workers would help reduce the spread to the community.

“I think anybody working with clients has an obligation to reduce the risk of infection from them to their clients

“If the practical way to ensure those obligations are met is a public health order I think it’s a reasonable justification.”

The move has been welcomed by some providers, including Adventure Patch, which began operating its own mandate at the start of December.

“The majority of children in receipt of early childhood education and care services are under 12 years of age,” Adventure Patch corporate services manager Laura Dix said.

“Further, a large cohort of these children are also under five years of age and there is no known date where vaccination will be available to them.

“As such, without a mandate for those who these children interact with, they would remain particularly vulnerable within the broader community.”

Shadow education minister Josh Willie said the announcement came too late.

“It’s incredibly concerning the government has waited for the day before borders open to mandate vaccinations for childcare workers,” Mr Willie said.

“They’re going to leave children, workers and families exposed to that risk for three weeks.

“It’s up to the government to explain how many unvaccinated children there will be for three weeks.”

Dr Veitch said the risk to children was much lower than to adults.

“It is a fact, small children are far less likely to experience complicated coronavirus infection and illness is almost always mild,” he said.

Premier Peter Gutwein said Public Health would “finalise the direction” if workers were still uinvaccinated by January 8.

“I would hope by the time we get to the 8th the absolute majority of of childcare workers have been vaccinated,” Premier Peter Gutwein said.

“Obviously if they haven’t been they won’t be able to work in the sector.”

‘Parents are really worried’: Calls for childcare vax mandate

The CEO of child care provider Lady Gowrie says the organisation is prepared to introduce a vaccine mandate, if the state government doesn’t enforce one across the sector.

CEO Mat Rowell attended a meeting was held with the state government and other providers on Monday, where he advocated in favour of a mandate for staff.

He was disappointed discussions had been left til the eleventh hour.

“It is disappointing, I‘ve been advocating for a number of weeks,” Mr Rowell said.

“Every other jurisdiction has had this in place.”

Mr Rowell said having a mandatory vaccination order would reduce the risk to children.

“If Covid is going to be a risk, the people most at risk will be the unvaccinated, large numbers of kids under 12,” he said.

“We want to make sure there’s no risk to them in any way.

“Parents are really worried about this, I’ve had a large number of emails from parents.”

Mat Rowell, CEO of Lady Gowrie.

As of Monday, parents have been able to book children aged 5-11 to get vaccinated at clinics, which will open on January 10.

“We don’t have the grace period that schools and teachers have, we work right until Christmas Eve,” Mr Rowell said.

“We’ll have children back in our services in the first week of January.”

Mr Rowell said not every operator was of the opinion a mandate should be introduced at the meeting.

“For us, we know the majority of our staff are vaccinated,” Mr Rowell said.

“But it’s also about other operators.

“Some providers were resistant to government putting in a mandated order in place.

“We think the state government needs to put a mandate in place for the entire sector.”

He said if the state government was not prepared to introduce a sector wide mandate, Lady Gowrie would introduce one of its own.

L-R Estelle Parkinson 5, Meg Free educator with Millicent Wedd 5 and Tom Ribbon 4 at Lady Gowrie Tasmania Integrated Centre for Children and Families at South Hobart. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“It’s Lady Gowrie’s intent to make vaccinations mandatory for staff, we’re waiting for government to pull that trigger but if they don’t we’ll put that in place,” he said.

“We’re following the lead of Good Start and Adventure Patch in putting the mandate in.”

Mr Rowell said there was no plan to require children to be vaccinated.

“We’re an essential service, we’re primarily government funded, we wouldn’t be in a position to discriminate against unvaccinated children,” he said.

“Those under six won’t be able to get vaccinated anyway.”

UTAS to make Covid vaccinations mandatory for students, staff

THE University of Tasmania has confirmed it will require anyone coming onto its campuses to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from next month.

The rule to be fully vaccinated applies from January 15, unless a person has a medical exemption.

UTAS made the call on Thursday, having flagged the possibility last month, saying a significant number of staff students and users of buildings were already required to be vaccinated due to Public Health directions.

Vice Chancellor of UTAS Professor Rufus Black. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

The decision expanded that requirement to ensure a consistent approach, the university said.

“We want to make our contribution to ensuring Tasmania stays safe,’’ UTAS Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black said.

“It is not just about slowing the spread of the virus and reducing the chances of outbreaks taking hold, it’s also about protecting people from the terrible consequences of this disease.

“Covid-19 is a disease that can and does result in death, serious illness, disability and long-term health consequences.

“Vaccines are lifesaving, and they reduce the risk and impact of infection. It is important that those of us who can get vaccinated do so in order to help protect those who cannot and the vulnerable among us.”

The university’s director of safety and wellbeing, Chris Arnold, said the decision to mandate vaccinations came after a risk assessment and a survey of staff and on-campus students.

“The message from the university community was clear — our students and our staff want a safe place to study and to work and the overwhelming majority supported mandatory vaccinations,’’ he said.

More than 2100 staff responded to the survey with 83 per cent supporting mandatory vaccinations, with just over 2000 students responding with 76 per cent in support.

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