CITY of Ballarat CEO Evan King has said he supports a new State Government rule that\u2019s made COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory for all municipal workers.<\/p>\n
A Chief Health Officer direction late last week means that City of Ballarat employees will join over one million other Victorian\u2019s who must have two coronavirus jabs by late November.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly support mandatory vaccination for local government to ensure any interactions with our community mean our staff are safe and our community is safe,\u201d Mr King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important. The only way out of the pandemic is vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up until the order relating to municipal workers was made, Mr King said the rules around who did and didn\u2019t need to have the shots among City of Ballarat workers was vague.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amendment of the direction really cleared it up for local government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to work through the directions and understand who they related to and who they didn\u2019t was pretty challenging, and each local government was taking slightly different interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the order, all City of Ballarat employees need to have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine or booked their first injection by 22 October.<\/p>\n
As of 26 November, all municipal workers will need to be fully vaccinated or hold a medical exemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with our organisation to ensure that everyone coming onto worksites have either a booking for a vaccination or have had their first dose, making sure we\u2019re sighting proof of that and recoding that information,\u201d Mr King said.<\/p>\n
While it wasn\u2019t yet clear if there were any municipal employees who were going to refuse the vaccine, Mr King acknowledged that hesitancy was a possibility within the workforce.<\/p>\n
He also said the City was developing systems to deal with such issues if they arose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to work through that in a respectful manner and try and support them through that,\u201d Mr King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re open to looking at [work from home] opportunities, but inherent in all positions in local government there is a requirement to be able to work on site at some point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for those who flat out refused to get the vaccine, Mr King said termination of employment was an option but not one he wanted to see happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not our preference to be doing that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut ultimately we have to follow the directions of the Chief Health Officer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CITY of Ballarat CEO Evan King has said he supports a new State Government rule that\u2019s made COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory for all municipal workers. A Chief Health Officer direction late last week means that City of Ballarat employees will join over one million other Victorian\u2019s who must have two coronavirus jabs by late November. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n