Paid Vaccination Leave: Let’s make it a right for every worker
Vaccinations are Australia’s pathway out of lockdowns. We need high rates of vaccination to avoid ongoing serious health, economic, and social disruption from COVID-19 outbreaks.
Important Information
-
Getting 80% or more of Australians vaccinated is vital.
-
Unions have won paid vaccination leave for more than 2 million workers already.
-
Getting vaccinated is one of the best ways to protect yourself from COVID-19.
-
The majority of people aged over 18 are now eligible for a vaccination.
-
Watch: How vaccines work.
-
Find out if you are eligible for a vaccine and where to book a vaccination appointnment here.
-
Already vaccinated? Get your FREE “Union Proud and Vaxxed” sticker.
Most working people will need to make an appointment, during working hours, to attend their vaccination.
The vaccination rollout has been too slow, too inefficient, and badly organised. It is plagued by inadequate supply and its design has failed to properly consider the needs of workers and their employers.
Australian unions leading the way
Financial hardship for insecure low paid workers is a genuine risk that could leave many workers unable to access the rollout program. The lack of a solution involving paid time to attend vaccinations and time to deal with any routine side effects is a design fault in the rollout.
By working directly with employers, Australian unions have secured paid vaccination leave for over 2 million workers but there are over 13 million working people in Australia. We need the Government to step up now and make vaccination leave a universal right for all workers.
The facts
- All vaccines require two doses to be administered at your GP or a vaccination clinic. More than 20% of people will experience side effects that might that require time off from work (usually less than 1 day).
- Sick leave is designed for when you are ill, getting the jab is not a sickness. Workers currently have no right to be absent from work to attend vaccination. This is why workers need paid vaccination leave as a workplace right.
- New vaccine supplies are now available for the majority of Australians. Millions of Australians will be expected to get vaccinated in the last three months of 2021.
- Over two million casual workers and workers with insecure jobs currently face the real risk that they will miss out on shifts and lose pay if they must make arrangements to get the jab outside working hours, or have to rest up afterwards because of short term side effects.