Vaccination in the workplace

Authored by the LexisNexis Legal Writer team.

During an outbreak of disease or illness, or in anticipation of one, businesses may wish to manage risks to the safety of workers and others in the workplace by introducing vaccination as control to eliminate or minimise these risks.

This workflow provides guidance on considerations relevant to this decision-making process and should be read with the Guidance Notes: Dealing with the impact of widespread disease on the workplace and Legal issues regarding the collection and use of personal information, including information about workers’ vaccination status.

This workflow is also summarised in the Checklist for managing vaccination in the workplace.

Step 1 — Is vaccination mandatory under any law or does industry guidance support vaccination?

If there is no supporting public health order, contractual provision or requirement in an industrial instrument, the direction will be based on the implied term that requires employees to comply with lawful and reasonable directions.

To establish whether vaccination is mandatory or supported by industry guidance, follow these steps:

• Check legislation, directions or public health orders.
• Check employment instruments, eg contracts of employment, policies and industrial instruments. For example, see the Precedents: Vaccination policy template, Employment contract — Optional clauses — Pre-conditions, conditions and warranties for mandatory vaccination and Employment contract — Optional clauses — Condition supporting regular medical checks and other safety measures.
• Are there any other relevant industry guidelines or regulatory requirements?
• • Commonwealth — Safe Work Australia.
• • State/territory health and safety regulators (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory).
• • Government authorities (Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory).
• • Fair Work Ombudsman.
• • Workers compensation authorities (Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory).