The Department of Justice and Attorney-General, the Office of the Public Guardian and the Office of the Director of Child Protection Litigation have commenced combined consultation process around a possible employer mandate for a COVID-19 vaccinations within their agencies.
The consultation process commenced on Thursday 6 January with an email to staff and a meeting with representatives of Together. The employer is seeking have the consultative process continue over a two week period.
The proposed policy identifies groups of staff within the three agencies who would be subject to the proposed mandate. The 'Group A' has been identified based the impact of existing Chief Health Officer directives on the work of the agencies and the 'Group B' has been identified through a risk assessment process. There are a number of staff, particularly in the corporate services areas, who are not captured by the policy as currently proposed.
The proposed policy also does not cover staff working in 1 William Street who are subject to a separate co-ordinated consultative process.
While the consultative process is a combined activity, the outcomes of the consultative process will be separately considered by each agency/office.
Together representatives met with a range of employers within the broader justice portfolio in December but the current proposal only covers a limited number of agencies and does not cover the Public Trust Office, Legal Aid Queensland, the Electoral Commission Queensland nor the Crime and Corruption Commission. We will be seeking separate meetings with them on any possible vaccination mandates.
As Together is already balloting members employed in these agencies on what the union policy should be on an employer policy for mandating vaccinations, the existing ballot will be used to determine the union response to this proposal but the ballot will now be closed at 12:00pm on Thursday 20 January to provide feedback to the employer.
Together is scheduled to meet with representatives of these agencies on 20 January.
