More and more companies are beginning to tweak mandates that once appeared set in stone
Sealord is scrapping its Covid-19 vaccination workplace requirement, joining other companies who've decided to ease up on vaccination requirements.
As Newsroom reported last week, Fonterra has dropped its vaccine mandate in favour of testing unvaccinated staff with a daily rapid antigen test.
This follows the Public Service Commission recommending that agencies wait to terminate the employment of unvaxxed individuals until they review their health and safety risk assessment and vaccination policies, with Vodafone and Auckland Council among those who've heeded this advice.
Now, Sealord is moving away from its requirement that each area of the company have 85 percent of staff vaccinated.
Previously, the fishing company required that 85 percent of crew on a fishing vessel, workers in a fish plant, or people in an office need to be vaccinated on any shift.
Chief executive Doug Paulin says the mandate has been dropped for three reasons.
Firstly, most areas of the business have hit the 85 percent target anyway, while the country has a rate of 93 percent.
Secondly, the Omicron variant appears to pose a reduced risk to most people’s health.
Lastly, the company was running surveillance testing of staff each day.
“That’s been really successful at stopping the spread of the virus in our work environment. While some people have contracted the virus, we’re pretty confident that it's been outside of the workplace,” Paulin says.
“We’ve spoken to our people and they feel really safe at work. Because of that, we’ve now decided we will actually remove the 85 percent mandate,” he says.
“Now it doesn’t matter whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated.”
He says the company had always envisaged the mandate as a temporary measure.
“We just didn’t know how long that would be and it’s been a case of just following what's happening and then making decisions as you get more information.”
