Workplace vaccination, the carrot or the stick?
In the United States, many workplaces now require their employees to be vaccinated.
In an aggressive effort to get the pandemic under control, US President Joe Biden has directed businesses with 100 or more employees to prepare to request proof of vaccination or test employees weekly for Covid-19. By the end of October, all US government employees must be vaccinated.
A significant 74 per cent of New Zealand CEOs say they can envisage a situation where most employers will require their staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to protect the safety of the wider workforce.
Just 12 per cent say they can’t see this happening, and 14 per cent are unsure.
Fletcher Building chair Bruce Hassall says that “increasingly we will see New Zealand businesses rolling out vaccination policies that start with ‘we strongly encourage their people to get vaccinated’, then ‘we expect people to get vaccinated’, followed by ‘we will require their people to get vaccinated — our customers will expect nothing less!”
Says Fulton Hogan group CEO Cos Bruyn: “It cannot impinge on freedom of choice requirements, however most employers will react to customer requirements.”
Beca CEO Greg Lowe says vaccination will be required for certain activities, with travel being the first.
“We already require compliance with our health policy for international travellers, and this will be just one more vaccine.”
A professional director says we need the Government to change the current law that does not allow it: “While there will always be an exception for those that for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated, employers should have the right to require current workers and not just new workers to get vaccinated.”
Federated Farmers CEO Terry Copeland says he “doesn’t think this can or should be enforced by employers”. Another CEO working in the energy sector shares a similar sentiment, saying they “don’t think this is possible under the employment laws, and I would be loath to do that to my workforce”.
A CEO in the utilities industry recognises that this would be challenging from a privacy perspective — “we don’t require any other mandatory vaccination, for example for the flu”.
A property boss adds “the possibility of presiding over the ‘your business name here’ cluster gives me nightmares!”
Vaccine incentives spurring workers to get shots
To encourage vaccine uptake, 33 per cent of respondents to the Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom survey say they either have incentives or plan to implement incentives for their staff to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Many of those say they are giving leave for employees that get vaccinated or some other allocation of additional holiday pay. Others are providing an additional carrot with extra cash payments or vouchers for vaccination, and even a lottery for the month based on the number of vaccinations done.
Westpac is providing two half-days of leave to get shots and has also given an additional day of Covid leave for staff to use before the end of the year to help support families to get vaccinated. The Warehouse Group is offering a one-off payment of $100 to all fully vaccinated employees across its businesses.
Spark CEO Jolie Hodson says her immediate priority is to encourage all staff to get vaccinated, by making it as easy as possible for them to do so. “We will look to host vaccinations on site, as we do for the standard flu shot, and will consider if we need to do anything further than this in time.”
Z Energy chief executive Mike Bennetts says, “We will ensure that staff are able to prioritise this ahead of their work responsibilities.”
Beca’s Lowe says all staff are being encouraged to get vaccinated, and Beca is working to provide on-site vaccination as well as the use of community clinics. “Our people understand the need to get protected,” he says.
A director says one of her organisation is providing minibuses and other transport logistics to help get staff to vaccine centres during work hours.
But there is still a significant number of executives — some 59 per cent — that say they have no plans to offer incentives to staff to get vaccinated, and the rest (8 per cent) are unsure.
“They know they will be the first to be laid off if another lockdown puts strain on staff numbers,” says an education provider. “We should not be incentivising, we should be waving the stick to those who place workplace and nation at risk — drop the ‘kindness’.”
Says one investment director: “Our staff are intelligent people who are used to managing their lives without a ‘big brother’ approach.”
From a food producer: “Surely the need is compelling enough.”