Vaccine status of 500 employees unknown

Vaccination against Covid-19 became mandatory on Monday for all 2791 city council staff.

A Covid-19 vaccine mandate is now in place for every Christchurch City Council employee, but the vaccination status of more than 500 workers remains unclear.

The council says it will not know exactly how many of its staff are unvaccinated until later this month.

Vaccination against Covid-19 became mandatory on Monday for all 2791 city council staff. This means all people working from council buildings, including the main Hereford St offices, must be fully vaccinated.

Any unvaccinated staff must work from a home ‘‘until further decisions are made’’, a council spokeswoman said. The council did not say how many staff were currently working from home.

Yesterday, 2250 of the council’s 2791 staff (80.6 per cent) had responded to a request to supply details of their vaccination status, the spokeswoman said. ‘‘Obviously that number will rise as staff return from their holidays.’’

A spokeswoman earlier said council staff had until January 10 to advise the council of their vaccination status.

The council expected to know the final number of vaccinated staff later this month, she said.

Nearly half of the council’s staff have had a vaccine mandate in place since early December because they were working in the organisation’s public facilities, like libraries and pools. This mandate covered 1440 workers.

A council spokeswoman earlier said about 20 of these 1440 workers never provided proof of vaccination. The council refused to say what has happened to these workers, citing privacy.

The council’s remaining 1340 staff, most of whom work in the Hereford St civic offices, were formally told vaccination would be required on January 6, when the council released its vaccine policy.

Unvaccinated staff members can no longer go to council buildings to work and will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

The council’s general manager of citizens and community, Mary Richardson, previously said she expected only ‘‘a very small number’’ of council staff would remain unvaccinated.

The council’s vaccine policy says unvaccinated staff may be offered further support to get vaccinated, or there may be changes to their role, such as hours or location of work. Terminating a person’s job is an option ‘‘if no suitable alternatives are available’’.

In December, the council confirmed its general manager of resources, Miles McConway, was unvaccinated against Covid-19.

It is unclear if he has been vaccinated since.

The council declined to say whether he was working from home, saying it was a human resources matter so it would withhold the information because of privacy.

McConway is a member of the council’s five-person executive leadership team, which is led by chief executive Dawn Baxendale. The group meets weekly.