Traffic light vaccine certificate an indirect mandate
Anuja Nadkarni
Anuja Nadkarni is a business reporter covering immigration, small business, employment and private tertiary education.
Business
The new ‘traffic light’ Covid protection system will support businesses to mandate vaccinations for staff, lawyer says
The new requirement that close contact businesses have vaccination certificates for greater freedom under the newly announced traffic light system will support employers to mandate vaccinations for staff in certain industries.
On Friday the Government announced a new post-lockdown ‘traffic light’ system, painting a picture of the levels of freedom available to Kiwis once the country reached the 90 percent double vaccination target.
Once every DHB region’s eligible population met the vaccination target, the country could move to the new framework. However, the restrictions were reliant on vaccination certificates being used.
The Government’s Covid-19 Protection Framework states vaccination certificates will be optional; however there are some high-risk settings where they will be a requirement in order to open to the public. Some places won’t be able to introduce vaccination requirements to ensure everyone can access basic services like supermarkets and pharmacies.
But Duncan Cotterill health and safety lawyer Olivia Lund says this may give close contact businesses that have been seeking mandates for vaccinating staff grounds to argue for exactly that.
Vaccine mandates are difficult to impose because of New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act that protects every person from forced medical treatment.
However, Lund says businesses required to have a vaccination certificate for customers could argue they need staff to be fully vaccinated in order to operate.
“If I was a business looking at that framework, and getting prepared for vaccines, certificates coming forward in the next month to six weeks, I’d say if my customers have to be vaccinated, well, my workers are going to have to be vaccinated as well.”
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins indicated the Government was looking at exactly addressing this issue.
Lund says there are still many questions the Government needs to address about the new post-lockdown framework.
“What happens to those who can’t get vaccinated and have a valid medical exemption? Are they going to be allowed on site or not? Will they have limited access to facilities?
“The Government says there are only a very limited number of people who fall under that exception but those people will be thinking what does that mean for me?”
Traffic light system
At red, gatherings of up to 100 people are allowed, including events and hospitality, so long as they have vaccination certificates. Those without vaccination certificates faced limitations – hospitality could only operate contactless, and gatherings of up to 10 were allowed. Gyms and other “close contact” businesses also couldn’t operate at red without vaccine certificates.
Similar restrictions were in place for orange for those operating without vaccination certificates. However, those with certificates could operate at a similar level to green, the lowest level of restriction.
At green, restrictions were eased significantly, but businesses operating without vaccination certificates were restricted to gatherings of 100.
“There are definitely some mixed feelings and not everyone is supportive of passports.”
– Marisa Bidois, Restaurant Association.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois says a recent survey showed about 60 percent of its members were supportive of vaccine passports for entry.
“There are definitely some mixed feelings and not everyone is supportive of passports.”
Bidois says there is also a lack of clarity around how long getting to 90 percent double vaccination will take.
“Businesses are quite keen to sort of move forward as quickly as we can.”
Bidois will be meeting with the officials from the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister’s Office to get further details about what the certification process will look like for businesses.
“For the events sector there is a vaccine passport that has gone through consultation, and that involves a certificate to be scanned with an app. But the details for what the certificate will look like for hospitality are still being clarified.”
NZ Association of Registered Hairdressers spokesman Niq James says he supports the new system, although there are still some details that need to be ironed out.
James, who runs a salon in Wellington, says he has been advocating for the industry to get vaccinated.
But one of his concerns with the new framework is how restrictions for those not willing to display vaccination certificates will be policed and enforced.
“I guess the big thing is who is actually going to check it?
“Anybody can open a salon and start doing what they’re doing. We have 500 members but there are 4500 other salons who may or may not be doing the right thing. There will be some inconsistency.”
