Unions want Australians to get coronavirus vaccine access based on their job, with shop assistants, teachers and airport security among those given priority once elderly people and border and healthcare staff have been vaccinated.
A submission to Health Minister Greg Hunt from the Australian Council of Trade Unions on Wednesday makes the case for people in some occupations to get earlier access to the vaccine because of their risk of catching the virus and the importance of their work to society.
Bus drivers would be one occupation to get early access to the coronavirus vaccine under an ACTU plan.Credit:Kate Geraghty
The plan came as the ACTU’s executive on Wednesday backed a call from the Electrical Trades Union to try to wind back laws letting unions, such as the CFMMEU, vote to split apart, which passed Parliament last year with bipartisan backing and scant ACTU opposition.
ACTU assistant secretary Liam O’Brien said the government’s rollout strategy should be expanded to prioritise people who would have to keep going to work and face the risk of illness if there was another mass COVID-19 outbreak.
“This is not about displacing any groups that are already there, but about ensuring that as we progress to the adult population every worker at high risk of exposure has access to the vaccine,” Mr O’Brien said. “It’s pretty hard for someone to say we don’t need supermarket workers when we went through the second wave in Melbourne.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the government’s rollout strategy was based on independent advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
“The government is working to provide clarity on the groups who will be included in phase 2A of the vaccination program prior to the commencement of this phase,” the spokeswoman said, which is when the unions want additional workers included.
“Individuals who are not in an at-risk work setting or defined as a critical worker will otherwise be prioritised for vaccinations in 2021 based on their personal circumstances, rather than their professional industry.”
Healthcare, border and critical workers in emergency services and meat processing will get the vaccine in the first two phases of the Morrison government’s plan, along with some people who are Indigenous or living with a disability or medical conditions.
