Use all options: Employer frustration over vaccination, testing

Big employers are pleading with the nation’s political leaders to take urgent action to protect millions of workers and customers amid growing fears that they cannot get enough testing kits and vaccines to help fight the Delta strain.

Company chiefs are venting their frustration over federal and state rules that prevent them from using rapid antigen tests across their workplaces to help track and trace the deadly coronavirus variant.

Queues of people outside the mass vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday.Credit: Dean Sewell

Business groups are also urging Prime Minister Scott Morrison to let them help fight COVID-19 by making it easier for them to vaccinate staff and customers who volunteer for the jabs, so companies can supplement the work of GPs, pharmacies and state hubs.

While the big supermarket chains are negotiating deals to vaccinate staff, and banks could launch pilot schemes this week to do the same, company director Tony Shepherd and others said all governments had to put greater urgency into the effort.

“We are in the middle of our biggest emergency since the Second World War and we need to make sure that all the resources of Australia are brought to bear to meet the crisis,” said Mr Shepherd, a director of Virgin Australia and Snowy Hydro.

He said political leaders should mobilise business to help with vaccinations and rapid antigen tests, which could supplement but not replace the more reliable polymerase chain reaction tests (PCR) used at government centres.

“If you have inadequate supply of vaccines, then the only thing you can do in the short term is better testing — and the rapid antigen testing has been used overseas now for months successfully,” he said.

With the Delta strain spreading quickly at workplaces, such as a KFC in south-western Sydney where a dozen staff were infected, employers want access to rapid tests like those distributed freely in the United Kingdom and other countries.

The federal government wants to ensure that anyone who tests positive to a rapid antigen test is put in touch with state health authorities so they take a PCR test.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said last week the rapid tests were useful but could only be used under the supervision of an authorised medical practitioner.

Asked why the government did not change that protocol, Professor Kelly said: “We’re certainly looking at that as a component of our next steps.”

PCR tests detect COVID-19 by screening for the presence of viral RNA and usually take hours for official results, while antigen tests use a nasal swab that is placed into a chemical solution and delivers a result within 20 minutes.

Business leaders have expressed dismay at the progress in getting decisions made or streamlining rules that could allow faster testing and vaccination.

The Australian Industry Group, whose members employ more than 750,000 people, issued a three-point plan on Sunday calling for rapid antigen testing in the workplace, rules to allow employers to vaccinate staff and clear advice from governments to encourage the workplace jabs.

“Our Olympic athletes successfully used rapid antigen testing in Tokyo, so why can’t we use the same tests here right now and make them available to all?” Ai Group chief Innes Willox said.

“Our leaders talk daily about going hard and fast with lockdowns and we need to use this same attitude with other approaches to dealing with COVID-19.”

Lieutenant General John Frewen, the co-ordinator of the federal vaccine taskforce, has been negotiating with companies to send thousands of doses to workplaces so staff can take them in the same way they take flu shots, with voluntary programs overseen by health professionals.

The plans include a pilot scheme at Commonwealth Bank and Westpac branches in south-west Sydney this week and using warehouses and logistics centres for food suppliers like Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Metcash.

Qantas and Virgin are also talking to General Frewen to vaccinate their workforces ahead of a possible return to widespread air travel.

Employers are being told they can get AstraZeneca doses from the federal government quickly but would have to wait until the second half of September for Pfizer. The third option, Moderna, is expected to go to pharmacies when the first million doses arrive in September.

The Prime Minister stopped short of urging companies to vaccinate their staff last Friday after national cabinet considered advice from the Solicitor-General on the rights of employers when vaccination was not mandatory under Australian law. The government has not released the Solicitor-General’s advice.

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott said the rapid tests could be expensive for smaller employers and there was a case for the use of Medicare rebates or other help to distribute the tests as widely as possible.

Ms Westacott said there was a bigger lag with the vaccination rollout because employers needed clear decisions from governments on the accreditation and indemnity rules for the contractors who administered the doses in the workplace.

Large companies often outsource their flu vaccine programs to contractors such as Aspen Medical, Bupa or Sanitarium.

“We need absolute clarity on the indemnity issues for employers either contracting with providers or coordinating it directly,” Ms Westacott said.

“We need this to be sorted out because business can play a really big role here.”

The 70 members of the BCA collectively employ more than 1 million workers.

“The big employers have got the capacity to do this,” Ms Westacott said.

“This is about taking about adding capacity into the system. It’s about taking the pressure off the public health system when the vaccine supply arrives. There isn’t a company I talk to who isn’t willing to step up and play a role here.”

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.