Unions back mandatory vaccination for port workers

The two main unions rep­re­sent­ing New Zealand port work­ers are back­ing the Gov­ern­ment move to make COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tions manda­to­ry for port work­ers.

RMTU Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Wayne But­son says work­ers should fol­low the advice of pub­lic health author­i­ties.

He says with ongo­ing glob­al out­breaks of the new Delta vari­ant of COVID-19, New Zealand has to use all avail­able strate­gies to pro­tect front­line work­ers and the com­mu­ni­ty.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the need to pro­tect port work­ers and the com­mu­ni­ty is the main con­cern for unions.

He says it will be nec­es­sary to work through the issues for work­ers who for what­ev­er rea­son choose not to get vac­ci­nat­ed, on a case by case basis.

He says up to now, health and safe­ty pro­to­cols and the use of the PPE (per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment) by port work­ers have had a good out­come, but any extra pre­cau­tions were wel­come.