A number of Central Coast Council staff who remain unvaccinated are facing the sack as they come to the end of extended leave while others have already been terminated.
Central Coast Newspapers believes about 40 staff are on leave with their future with Council in doubt, and another 20 or so have received temporary reprieves.
Council has confirmed another five permanent staff and 12 casuals have been terminated.
Council announced in November last year that all workers “who attend the workplace or have interactions with the public are required to be fully vaccinated” by January 9, 2022.
Council said it has approved a small number of “temporary reasonable adjustments” in line with its COVID workplace policy for staff who were unable to be vaccinated due to medical and other reasons.
“The adjustments are in place at all levels within the organisation including operational staff, administrative staff and for some leaders,” Council said on Friday.
“Five permanent staff and 12 casual staff who indicated they were going to remain unvaccinated or were unable to have temporary reasonable adjustments approved due to the nature of their role were terminated in line with the COVIDsafe Workplace Policy.
“All staff without an approved temporary reasonable adjustment, such as those on parental leave or extended leave will need to be vaccinated before attending the workplace,” Council said.
Council’s COVID policy states that any medical contraindication will be assessed individually, considering the work environment and expected contact with both staff and the community.
The presence of a medical contraindication does not guarantee that ongoing employment can be provided.
“Temporary reasonable adjustments will be assessed on a case-by-case basis by the relevant Director,” the policy states.
United Services Union (USU) spokesman Luke Hutchinson said the union had helped more than 20 people gain the “temporary reasonable adjustments”.
Some of these temporary adjustments will last for up to six months, he said.
He said about one third of councils across the state had the same sort of policy while some other councils were asking for certain sections of the workforce to be vaccinated.
The Council said that where temporary reasonable adjustments are approved, the length of the reasonable adjustment time frame will be allocated, and the employee must comply with any additional controls as determined by Council.
The policy states that: “Once the temporary reasonable adjustments have concluded, team members who choose not to be vaccinated will be advised of the consequences.
“In most cases, this will begin the conversation regarding cessation of employment.”
In October 2021 all staff were advised of Council’s intent to formulate a policy on vaccination against COVID-19.
“The risk of transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace is a very real risk, Council continues to undertake measures to protect staff from any workplace transmission of COVID-19,” Council said last week.
“We want all employees to go home safe and healthy at the end of each day.”
The COVIDsafe Workplace Policy was developed collaboratively with Council staff, the United Services Union, the Local Government Engineers Association and the Development and Environmental Professionals’ Association.
After finalisation of the draft policy, it was presented to the Health and Safety Representative Committee for input and the Consultative Committee for staff consultation.
Following consultation, the COVIDsafe Workplace Policy was endorsed by the CEO David Farmer on November 30, 2021.
The official Council headcount at the end of June 2021 was 2,183 which included permanent, fixed term and casual employees.
Merilyn Vale