New border-worker case puts our system to the test
Questions persist over how many staff at frontline are following the rules
There might be hundreds of border workers who aren’t being regularly tested despite potentially coming into contact with people, ships, planes, or other things that have arrived from overseas.
And workers who are being tested can go 12 days without one and still meet the weekly testing requirement, or 26 days without a test and meet the fortnightly requirement.
Yesterday’s case of an Auckland airport worker was a reminder of the importance of such tests, which can catch a case early before it spreads.
The Government ideally would have eyes on everyone in MIQ and at the border who needs to be tested, and whether these tests are being done. It does not.
This is a vulnerability in a system that everyone thought was tip-top until last week, when MBIE revealed a Grand Millennium security guard, Case B, hadn’t been tested for five months. He was apparently lying in telling his employer, First Security, he was tested fortnightly.
First Security or the Government could have checked whether that was happening by looking at the border-worker testing register — but neither did.
This is the hole — not only in MIQ but the whole border-testing regime — that prompted National MP Simon Bridges to liken the system to an honesty box at a roadside feijoa stall.
The Government concedes that the checks and balances need to be better.
Taking unvaccinated workers away from the frontline from the start of May will help, as will the new public health order that takes effect from 11.59pm today.
Right now, border workers requiring weekly testing must have a test at least once within a sevenday period. This means they could go 12 days — or 26 days, if they need fortnightly tests — without a test and still meet the requirements.
Under the new order, workers requiring weekly testing will need to be tested within seven days of their last test.
The order also adds baggage handlers and workers who come into contact with “affected items” — such as the LSG Sky Chefs worker who may have caught Covid-19 from handling linen from incoming flights — to the list of those who must be tested.
And from next Tuesday, April 27, all border employers will be required to use the Government’s border worker testing register. Now, only about 60 per cent of them do.
But the register only tells us when workers have been tested, not when they should be tested.
Employers — public and private — are legally required to keep a record of who needs to be tested and when, which essentially makes them the Government’s eyes on the border workforce.
But the onus is on the Government to ensure compliance, and whether it’s doing enough — balancing issues such as privacy and practicality — has been the subject of some resistance.
Ankle-bracelets for border workers was too Big Brother-ish, said Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.
The Government couldn’t be expected to be on every street corner checking that every car was keeping to the speed limit, PM Jacinda Ardern said.
But is it on any corner at all? What spot checks have been done, if any?
Is there even a compliance team
checking up on the border-wide system?
One check that’s been live since February is the “WhosOnLocation” register at every MIQ facility where workers sign in and out. That can then be matched against the borderworker testing register to see if workers are being tested as frequently as they should be.
It’s not foolproof — Hipkins said Case B wasn’t signing in — but if it improves compliance, why not roll it out to ports and airports?
Why hasn’t there been a systemwide audit, followed by fining any worker missing tests and any employer failing to keep proper tabs on their workers?
The Herald has asked how many border workers are missing their tests. The query bounced from MBIE to Customs to DPMC to Health.
No one seems to know.