'It's the greatest irony that these drivers are on the front line and most vulnerable because they’re out in the community but haven’t been prioritised' – union
A tripartite effort between a union, healthcare provider and NZ Post is under way to allow drivers and courier workers to get vaccinated on the job.
This comes after a NZ Post worker tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks ago at the company's Highbrook depot in east Auckland.
The facility has 1500 workers, including drivers.
E tū national industry organiser Joe Gallagher said the union was working with South Seas Healthcare’s social agency The Cause Collective and NZ Post on the initiative to ramp up vaccination rates among drivers.
“I mean, it's the greatest irony that these drivers are on the front line and most vulnerable because they’re out in the community but haven’t been prioritised," Gallagher said.
NZ Post said it would not be able to confirm details until this week.
The Cause Collective spokesman Jerome Mika said all parties were pushing as quickly as they could with setting up the centre.
Urgency in getting essential workers vaccinated was the driver for the initiative.
“We wanted to especially encourage our bigger employers like NZ Post who employ a lot of our essential workers.”
Some 24,000 essential workers have had their first vaccination over the past couple of weeks.
However, dozens of essential workers have also tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, many of them supermarket workers. Some supermarkets have been offering staff vaccinations on-site.
WorkSafe had received 582 complaints about Covid breaches in the first few weeks of this lockdown.
Almost half of the complaints it actioned were allegations of businesses opening when they potentially should not have been.
The other main issues were about mask use, physical distancing, and overcrowding.
Since alert Level 3 was announced for areas outside of Auckland, WorkSafe had triaged 44 notifications about business operating under Level 3, a spokeswoman said.
Last week, telecommunications company Universal Communications Group decided to incentivise staff to get vaccinated.
The company has more than 1250 employees and contractors who carry out project management, installation and maintenance across the country and Australia.
“We wanted to especially encourage our bigger employers like NZ Post who employ a lot of our essential workers.” – Jerome Mika, The Cause Collective
Its executive chairman Ralf Luna said UCG was giving an extra day of annual leave to all employees who got a double dose of the Covid-19 vaccination as well as paid time off to get inoculated.
The company would provide its contract technicians a $100 bonus once they were fully vaccinated.
Luna hoped more companies would adopt similar approaches to incentivising staff to “be part of an aggressive vaccination strategy.
“That is going to allow both New Zealand and Australia to open up to the world more quickly, and benefit all of us,” he said.
Dundas Street Employment Law partner Rosamund Webby said she expected to see a surge in offers of new employment being made subject to having had or getting the Covid-19 jab.
But Webby said the situation was a lot murkier where existing employees were concerned.
“Unless it’s imposed legislatively by the Government in some way (legislation can trump contract), employers generally cannot unilaterally impose a brand new condition on current employment relationships – particularly one that might ultimately see the employee lose their job if they can’t meet it.
“I think there will be a lot of consultation and discussion taking place in workplaces about this though, and employees and unions may well be more comfortable engaging constructively in those given the virulence of Delta and the potential consequences for themselves and their loved ones.”
