New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has asked employers to “pressure” their staff into getting vaccinated, suggesting that once the lockdown ends, only vaccinated employees will be allowed to return to work.
Berejiklian, who said the government was assessing a ‘no jab, no work’ policy, urged bosses during a press conference on Thursday to put pressure on unvaccinated staff until they submit to the jab.
Berejiklian said: “Please, if you’re a boss, if you’re an employer — we’ve already had meetings with business leaders, both in those eight local government areas and more broadly — please, put pressure on your staff to get vaccinated.
“We are doing that. We need you to help us. So, we’re really calling to business and industry: Help us get your staff vaccinated. Even if they’re not allowed to work now, because chances are, we’ll be able to have them back sooner once they’ve had their vaccination and that’s a fact.”
On Thursday, fruit and vegetable processor SPC became the first Australian company to mandate vaccines for all onsite staff and visitors.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the move, saying the government is supportive of employers making their own decisions.
Ironically, on Friday, Morrison ruled out a mandatory vaccine policy in Australia, saying, “We do not have that. We are not proposing to have that.”
Of course, that’s just political speak. The government can’t mandate people to be vaccinated, but they can encourage employers not to allow them into the workforce. And this isn’t just going to impact workers either.
In November Qantas announced it would ban unvaccinated people from travelling with their airline. At the time, we noted: When the government can’t force the people to be medicated or injected against their will, you can be sure corporations and multinationals will do everything within their power to prevent the people from buying or selling without a vaccine.
After all, why bother with “informed consent” when you can simply threaten people’s livelihoods?
So much for the Australian Immunisation Handbook which states, for consent to vaccinate to be legally valid, “it must be given voluntarily in the absence of undue pressure, coercion or manipulation.”
It starts with travelling on an aircraft. It ends with trying to buy bread. And barring people from earning the money they need to buy the bread is only one rung from the very bottom.