24 October 2021

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A survey of the policies of more than 60 of the country’s largest employers reveals that unvaccinated Australians will be unwelcome in a vast array of workplaces as the country reopens.

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Chief executive of biotech giant CSL, Paul Perreault, told this masthead last month that there “could be a few” of his staff that leave the business over the company’s requirement to be fully vaccinated to visit its Australian sites by December 31. However, he says the vast majority of the company’s workforce understands the value of vaccination.

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Telstra executive Alex Badenoch says 99 per cent of the telco’s staff are on board with coronavirus vaccination, but that doesn’t mean the decision to mandate jabs for frontline staff was easy.

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Of the companies surveyed, only two – Medibank and Goodman Group – explicitly said they would allow unvaccinated workers to continue their employment from home, provided they were part of fully remote teams.

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Seven companies - CSL, Sonic Healthcare BHP, Newcrest, Medibank, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and mining company IGO - all flagged that termination of employment would be an option for staff who don’t comply without a valid medical exemption.

“Any employees without an approved exemption at the specific dates will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment,” a CSL spokesman confirmed.

A spokesman for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank said while it wanted to afford staff flexibility post-pandemic, its workers would likely have to come into head offices at some point in their employment.

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Eight companies: Australian Super, A2 Milk, Washington H. Soul Pattinson, ResMed, Magellan, Charter Hall, JB Hi-Fi and Domino’s Pizza Enterprises declined to comment on their policies for staff or stated that they were still working through the detail, so it was not appropriate to weigh in.

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Goodman Group, Mirvac, Stockland, CSL and GPT Group have said staff surveys indicate more than 90 per cent of their staff have already received both their doses or intend to do so.

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