The NT government has for the first time revealed how much of its workforce is unvaccinated following the introduction of a wide-ranging vaccine mandate on Saturday.
As of Saturday, workers in a broad range of settings are subject to the mandate, which could see employees face $5,000 fines if they enter the workplace without having their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Unions for frontline government agencies were last week voicing concerns about possible staff shortages when the mandate took effect, with the government refusing to release data relating to public service vaccination levels.
On Monday, the Chief Minister's Office said "approximately" 700 public servants out of 22,000, or 3 per cent of the public service, are unvaccinated after the mandate deadline.
That number could be lower, according to a government spokeswoman, due to a lag in employees' communicating their vaccination status to their managers or agencies.
At a press conference, Michael Gunner said "a bit over" 98 per cent of frontline staff in the public service has now received at least one dose.
Fourteen police members out of more than 1,700 were not yet vaccinated – a compliance rate that took the NT Police Association (NTPA) by surprise.
President Paul McCue said the result was "nowhere near the figure that we potentially were concerned about initially".
"[Last week] was a very stressful time," Mr McCue told ABC Radio Darwin this morning.
"It certainly looks like the majority of police have complied with that requirement."
The Chief Minister's Office said 65 nurses — 39 in the Top End and 26 in Centre — out of 3,000 remained unvaccinated, making for a 98 per cent vaccination rate of at least one dose.
Teachers are also currently vaccinated at a 98 per cent rate, with 52 of 2,463 teachers unvaccinated by the mandate deadline, according to the government's data.
In a statement, Mr Gunner said the "the overwhelming majority of our public servants have been vaccinated and have done the right thing by all Territorians".
Those who remain unvaccinated "without a genuine medical reason", Mr Gunner said, had "let down" every Territorian.
Confusion over public servant employment status
Late last week, the government denied reports public servants who did not comply with its vaccine mandate would be stood down on full pay.
But comments on Monday morning from Cath Hatcher, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT branch secretary, hinted at confusion over the issue.
Ms Hatcher told ABC Radio Darwin that a letter sent by NT Health chief executive Frank Daly to unvaccinated agency staff indicated unvaccinated employees would be stood down with full pay "until each case was looked at".
Soon after Ms Hatcher's comments, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister texted into the program in an attempt to clarify the issue, saying all unvaccinated public servants would be stood down without pay after 5pm Tuesday.
That 5pm Tuesday deadline, according to further information provided by the government, would allow the government to comply with the Public Sector Employment and Management Act that stipulates employees be given reasonable opportunity to respond to proposed disciplinary action.
The government said under the act a 48-hour grace period, which began on Friday, amounted to a reasonable time frame for employees to respond before they were stood down without pay.
All department chief executives have been contacted regarding the Tuesday 5pm deadline, the government said.
