Deloitte is the latest large employer to introduce a policy that requires anyone coming to their offices to be fully vaccinated against covid-19.
As of Dec 1, only fully vaccinated staff, contractors and visitors will be able to enter the company premises, and only fully vaccinated staff will be able to visit client or third-party premises or events held offsite.
CEO Mike Horne said the decision wasn’t made lightly: “We conducted a full health and safety risk assessment, asked our people to provide their vaccination status as well as their comfort level at working with those who are unvaccinated, and then consulted with them on our draft policy before finalising.”
The consultancy firm was working closely with those people who were not vaccinated to ensure they remained included and connected to the business through remote working options.
Deloitte follows a trend set by PwC and Russell McVeagh, which both introduced similar policies last month. The company also follows its Australian business which required compulsory vaccination for its 10,000 employees in October. It was the first of Australia’s large professional services firms to do so.
While the New Zealand government has mandated vaccines only for workers in border industries, healthcare and schools so far, more private employers are taking the initiative to implement their own policies after conducting internal health and safety risk assessments.
Mediaworks has introduced a vaccine mandate for its offices which will come into effect in December. Spark is reportedly planning to introduce a policy after having consulted with staff.
Air NZ is requiring a large portion of its workers to be fully vaccinated by the end of December. However, the national airline is giving some vaccine-hesitant employees the option of taking unpaid leave to wait for an alternative to the Pfizer vaccine to become available.
