The Warehouse proposes compulsory vaccination for staff

Thursday, 21 October 2021

Staff may soon need a vaccine to work at The Warehouse.

The Warehouse Group is considering making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for its 12,000 staff.

A number of businesses have already indicated that they will require staff and visitors to be vaccinated, including PwC, Russell McVeagh and MediaWorks.

But this move would be a significant one for the retail sector. The retailer had already offered a $100 incentive to fully vaccinated employees.

The retailer had engaged with staff across the group, which includes The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Noel Leeming, Torpedo7 and TheMarket.com on how people could be kept safe from Covid-19.

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It said it had formed a preliminary view that most work within the business came with a high risk of contracting or spreading Covid-19 and that vaccination could be an important part of managing that risk.

The proposal is for vaccines to become compulsory for staff from January 1.

It is conducting a 14-day consultation process with employees.

First Union national retail organiser Ben Peterson says the union will work closely with its members.

“We’re committed to keeping our team members as well as our customers and the many others who come into contact with us healthy and safe. The best way for us to do this is by our team being fully vaccinated,” said chief executive Nick Grayston.

“We have a responsibility to provide a safe workplace and we will be consulting with our team and seeking their views on a proposed policy to make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory by January 1, 2022 for all team members.”

First Union national retail organiser Ben Peterson described The Warehouse’s proposal as “bold”.

“It’s happened very quickly. We’re looking at it legally to make sure things are robust,” he said.

The union would work with members closely and would have a better understanding of what was proposed in the coming days.

The Warehouse could have a justifiable health and safety concern for a person in a customer-facing role, but night staff members who had limited contact with other staff and no customers wasn’t as justifiable, he said.

“We want to look at that really seriously.

“It’s quite a bold thing that’s been put forward by The Warehouse that seems to be looking at all roles.”

First Union supported vaccinations but did have concerns about businesses mandating them being counter-productive, he said.

“We’re a little bit concerned about individual employers making their own rules and not doing it in step with the health response.”

Employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk said, to implement a mandate, employers would need to conduct a health and safety assessment to determine whether roles put employees at risk of contracting Covid-19, or whether employees had engagement with vulnerable community members. The line had not yet been tested on what constituted reasonable health and safety grounds, Hornsby-Geluk said.

While some had questioned whether mandatory vaccination would be a breach of the Bill of Rights Act or civil liberties, there was a “growing recognition” that vaccination was a fundamental and necessary part of an effective public safety response, Hornsby-Geluk said.