Red tape, unions scare Aussie firms off compulsory virus jabs

AUSTRALIAN red tape and unions are blocking US companies from forcing workers at their Australian offshoots to be immunised against Covid-19, despite SPC becoming the first local business to take such action.

More American businesses are taking a hardline approach to the unvaccinated, with CNN president Jeff Zucker firing three employers who came to work without getting the jab.

Rideshare giant Uber and Lyft are also forcing its officebased workers to get immunised – as are Google and Facebook – and even Netflix is mandating US cast and crew are vaccinated. They join a growing list of companies including Microsoft, Walmart and meatpacker Tyson Foods.

But Australian subsidiaries of US businesses are choosing to use carrots rather than sticks to lift Australia’s national vaccination rate from around 15.9 per cent to 70 per cent – the number needed to avoid future lockdowns.

This is despite fruit and vegetable processor SPC this week becoming the first Australian company outside healthcare to ban unvaccinated workers. To date, no other companies have followed suit.

Instead incentives are preferred, with the country’s biggest health insurer Medibank, announcing on Friday it would award its members who get vaccinated with the equivalent of a $10 gift card.

Part of the reason is the threat of industrial and legal action, as well as government policy stipulating that vaccines should be voluntary.

National cabinet has “fully agreed” to live with the virus once 70 per cent of the population is vaccinated, ensuring lockdowns will be limited to isolated occasions and cast aside once the country reaches 80 per cent.

But conjecture shrouds how the government will achieve those targets, and more companies are urging the government to mandate vaccinations for workers in some sectors as the Delta variant locks down more than 15 million people in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had no intention of making new laws to make vaccines mandatory as he indicated rapid antigen testing would finally be used.

Mr Morrison said there would be situations where vaccinations would be compulsory, but ultimately businesses must take their own legal advice.