Vaccination Policies
As general society is approaching COVID from the basis of “living with” the disease, there is little or no utility in schools adopting stringent policies mandating up-to-date vaccination from all staff under threat of termination for those not complying.
The Catholic and Lutheran sectors both adopted a strict mandate policy after the state-wide directive for schools was removed in March 2022. Back then it may have appeared justifiable but now things have moved on.
The Lutheran sector is reviewing their policy and is proposing that vaccination would no longer be an employment condition. This is sensible and supported by the IEU in South Australia.
The Catholic sector review ended up ratifying the employer proposal. It would no longer be an employment condition to be vaccinated, but the vaccination mandate was retained for those working in “high risk settings” – i.e. special schools and special units.
The only justification for that would be the existence of one remaining health directive for disability services. The IEU position is that the Catholic blanket requirement for “high risk settings” is too broad and should be narrowed and only be maintained for the life of the health directive upon which it is based. Discussions continue.
