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Vaccine mandate pulled before reaching hearing
A hearing into a Queensland Council’s vaccine mandate was stopped in its tracks when the entire policy was cancelled an hour before it was due to begin, leaving the unvaccinated employees “relieved” that they could continue working.
Naomi Neilson
Immediately prior to a dispute hearing before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC), a Pro-Choice Alliance – which consists of council employees – learnt that the chief executive Tim Baker had cancelled the entire vaccine mandate policy that he had been trying to introduce to the 4,000-plus workforce since December 2021.
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Commenting on the update, Banga Legal’s solicitor Samir Banga said the clients – eight members of the alliance, representing more than 400 others – were happy with the “significant win” but “wished it had never come to this”. Mr Banga said the hearing could have been avoided if the “council negotiated in good faith”.
“My clients are also very relieved as this has taken a significant amount of work and stress over the past few months to shut down a deficient proposed policy with a highly deficient and shambolic consultation process,” Mr Banga said.
In the email sent to Gold Coast Council employees, Mr Baker said the policy was no longer required due to the “reduced consequences” of COVID-19.
Mr Banga argued the policy would have been “unnecessary” and trampled over the employees’ rights to choose whether or not to be vaccinated or whether they could employ other protective measures, such as working from home and wearing masks.
“The council was very wise to cancel their attempted vaccine mandate policy now as the attempted but deficient roll out has caused unnecessary stress and anxiety for hundreds of council workers who feared that they were either to be coerced into having the vaccine or terminated from their employment,” Mr Banga said.
“Thankfully many clients can now enjoy some relief now and get back to work and back to the business of taking pride in their jobs. They love their jobs working for the council and hope to remain working there long into the future.”
