Maritime Union supports mandatory Covid-19 vaccination for port workers
Tuesday, 13 July 2021
The Maritime Union is supporting the Government’s move to make Covid-19 jabs mandatory for port workers.
National secretary Craig Harrison said the union also supported freedom of choice for those workers who did not want to be vaccinated, and it would work with employers to ensure unvaccinated workers did not have their jobs put in jeopardy.
The need to protect port workers and the community was the main concern for the union, he said.
On Monday, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said about 1800 airport and port workers will now need to be vaccinated in order to do their job.
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It comes months after Government-employed border workers and managed isolation and quarantine staff had to be jabbed or moved from the frontline.
“This is necessary to lift the uptake of the vaccine among the wider border workforce and strengthen our ongoing response to Covid-19,” Hipkins said.
“As well as workers at managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities, workers at our ports and airports who are at the greatest risk of exposure to Covid-19 must now be vaccinated.”
Just over 50 per cent of active port workers and 82 per cent of active border workers had been fully vaccinated.
Hipkins wanted to see this number increase.
Harrison said that protocols and the use of personal protective equipment by port workers have had a good outcome, but with new variants of Covid-19 causing problems overseas, extra precautions were welcome.
Details of who was covered by the order were not clear yet. For instance, it wasn’t known if it applied to someone who worked in administration and didn’t go anywhere near a ship, or just people who go up on board the ships.
About 60 per cent of the workforce would not go on the ships, he said.
Some members had expressed concern about being made to take the jab, but workers could be moved around in some cases.
“It’s a very unusual situation. It’s going to be a pretty hard pill to swallow for someone, who for instance, has worked 30 years on the waterfront to be told if you don’t get this injection you’re going to lose your job,” he said.
A lot of support would have to be given to workers, and the union would defend the jobs of the unvaccinated, he said
The ongoing worker shortage at the ports could be affected by the order, he said. Many workers were part-time or casual, with some companies’ workforce being comprised of up to 70 per cent part-timers.
The large numbers of insecure workers with irregular work patterns would be difficult to keep track of.
Employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk said the order meant vaccination was a fundamental requirement of the job. If a worker chose not to have the jab, employers would have to work with them to find alternative employment away from the frontline. If not, termination of employment was the next step.
“That’s a harsh decision for those employees to have to make, but it’s the reality.”
When asked if it was problematic that the jab was being mandated while still being only provisionally approved, and monthly safety reports from MedSafe were showing that new safety signals were being flagged up, including a menstrual disorder, bells palsy and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), she would not be drawn.
Any liability for an adverse reaction suffered by a worker who had been mandated to take the jab would probably fall on the Government, rather than the employer, she said.
An April Health Order which mandated border workers needed to have had at least their first Covid-19 vaccine didn’t cover “wider border workforce” such as airline staff and port workers. All managed isolation and quarantine staff were covered by the order.