Pharmacy Daily | No compelling staff to have COVAX

PHARMACY owners will not be able to compel employees to be vaccinated, but they should start discussions about having the COVID-19 vaccine with their teams, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, George Tambassis, says.

Speaking during a webinar hosted by the Guild on Wed night, Tambassis told proprietors it was unlikely public health orders would be made, which would allow them to require staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

"While the Government aims to have as many Australians as possible choose to be vaccinated, receiving the vaccination is voluntary - that's the Government's position," he said.

"Much of the legal basis for workplace requirements would primarily come from the states and territories either through public health orders or work health and safety authorities.

"But also WorkSafe Australia [has] reported that given the limited information on transmissibility it did not believe the vast majority of workplaces would be expected to require or need their workers to be vacccinated.

"Until the time that a public health order is released by the relevant authority it would be difficult for an employer to justify and lawfully direct that an employee is required to have a COVID-19 vaccination."

Tambassis noted pharmacy staff will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines from Phase 1b of the Federal Government's rollout, which he said was imminent.

"The Guild reccommends that you commence a consultation process with your staff [about the vaccination]," he said.

"Start talking to them about anticipating the voluntary vaccination program, to assist in protecting your community and employees, especially where a pharmacy will be participating in this COVID-19 vaccination program."

He added that with the rollout of Phase 1b set to begin on 22 Mar, the Federal Government had initially advised the Guild that pharmacy staff would receive the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, however that advice has since changed, and "pharmacists and pharmacy staff may receive the Pfizer vaccine or more likely the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of phase 1b".