Vaccination Mandates
With the there being no current Public Safety Order in place, many of the requirements to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to work are also not in force.
Employees should note that individual work sites will have different policies and expectations with regard to how they manage health and safety.
Previous Work
Many employers have advertised for positions previous employees may have held when they were released from employment due to not being vaccinated or not wishing to disclose their health information.
Now that the mandate(s) are no longer in effect, applying for previous positions is a reasonable thing that some may do. We encourage previous employees to seek out their previous employment and to seek returning on similar terms to when they left.
Discrimination
Some workplaces who have previously had employees may choose not to rehire those employees despite advertising for same or similar positions. Employees with clean work histories may be able to pursue the line of reasoning behind being refused if the only previous concern an employer held was surounding their vaccinaton status.
Considerations
Despite this, various workplaces such as hospitals or other health sensisitive sites may have internal policies around vaccination requirements. The view of the Fair Work Commission and Courts is that these are reasonable requirements to impose on employees working in high risk or health sensitive areas provided the company can validly outline such requirements.
Concerns
Members who are concerned about whether they can return to work can email VICSU’s member support for assistance and advice in returning to their previous work.
Email: MemberSupport@VICSU.Org.au