
Vaccination guidelines for businesses
ArticleLaw + Human Rights
BY Simon Longstaff 14 OCT 2021
Businesses are having to address complex ethical questions about the extent to which a person’s vaccination status should be a condition of employment.
Here are some guidelines to consider:
1. There is a difference between a mandatory requirement (where there is no choice) and a condition of employment (which people can choose to meet as they think best).
Many jobs impose conditions of employment that relate to a person’s health status (including whether or not they have been vaccinated).
2. Respect and promote the maximum degree of freedom of employees – limited only by what is required to meet one’s obligations to others.
In determining this it’s important to consider:
- The nature of any duties owed to other people – including employees, customers, and members of the community more generally.
- The specific context within which people will come into contact with your employees e.g. frequency, proximity, location – and estimate the way these variables shape ‘the risk envelope’.
3. Determine if a legitimate authority (e.g. a government) has made any rules.
This includes Legislation, regulation, public health orders, etc. that determine how the business must act. For example, governments may set license conditions that ‘tie the hands’ of specific employers.
4. Actively seek alternative means by which employees might perform their roles, even if they are not vaccinated.
Note, alternatives must be practical and affordable.
5. Determine who bears the burden (including the cost) of alternative measures.
For example, should employees who choose not to be vaccinated be required to be masked, or to use rapid antigen testing at their expense?
6. Consider how roles might be reassigned amongst the unvaccinated.
With priority given to those with medical exemptions.
7. Treat every person with respect – ensuring that no person is ridiculed or marginalised because of their choice.
But note that respect for one person or group does not entail agreement with their position; nor does it void one’s obligations to others or your right, as an employer, to advance your own interests.
8. Be prepared to adjust your own position in response to changing circumstances.
Including evidence based on the latest medical research relating to vaccine safety and efficacy, etc.
Read more on the difference between compulsory and conditional requirements here.
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BY Simon Longstaff
After studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, Simon pursued postgraduate studies in philosophy as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1991, Simon commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy.”
3 Comments
Very useful guidelines on a subject that has got real currency.
I wonder if another useful guideline is being really clear about why vaccination is made mandatory. What objective is being set?
Here I am struggling a little. The epidemiologists are now suggesting that most Austrlians will contract COVID sometime in the next two years. Most vaccinated people are expected to handle that fairly easily without hospitalisation and low risk of death. Those choosing not to be vaccinated choose a harder road which presumably they are happy with- their choice principally affects them.
The vast majority of Australians are choosing vaccination. When they get the bug it could be from an unvaccinated adult, an unvaccinated child or a vaccinated person. Regardless of how they got it, they have to cope and those who have chosen vaccination will handle it relatively easily. Having had it, their bodies are better placed to deal with a repeat.
If all of this is true, why would a government or employer mandate? What obligation, moral or other, are they seeing to?
The Australian Constitution and our Prime Minister stated, “We will not mandate Covid Vaccinations. The buck was passed on to the employees to follow their state government decisions. THIS IS SO WRONG!!!!
News is coming out around the world that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can catch and spread the virus. The supposedly only difference is alleged that the vaccinated will not be as bad in their symptoms.
When all the news comes out about the true numbers of vaccination injuries as a result of mandatory vaccination who will wear the costs of medical bills and rehabilitation? The owner of the business? I don’t think so. Our Australian government?
Mandated vaccinations in the workplace should never have happened. I have been a Psychologist for over 30 years and called back to work because of the increased numbers of mental health referrals. I am very skilled but the mandate said I would need to be vaccinated. So No, I decline. Tell that to the depressed, anxious adult or child client who is suffering.
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