Vaccine passes and mandates might soon be a thing of the past but an employment lawyer believes some businesses might keep them to make a statement.
From 11:59pm on Monday, it will no longer be compulsory for people to be vaccinated to enter indoor businesses like restaurants and gyms.
The announcement to remove the use of vaccine passes was made in March as part of a plan to loosen COVID restrictions, including removing some vaccine mandates and changes in indoor and outdoor gathering limits.
Employment lawyer Kathryn Dalziel told AM on Monday businesses can continue using vaccine passes as long as it doesn't breach the Human Rights Act.
"For some businesses who aren't supplying essential services, they have got to sit there and think about what are they selling and what they are doing," she said.
"So a good example will be our restaurants and cafes. Some will say all welcome, come on in and dine with us, others might say actually no we are going to carry on with the vaccine passes because we are going to send a marketing message out that we only let people in with vaccine passes."
Dalziel said businesses can still ask employees for proof of vaccination if they have the right policies.
"If they [business] say we are going to continue with mandates, here are our health and safety reasons why, they've gone into consultation, they have done it in good faith and they have made the decision 'yes we are going to carry on with the mandates', then yes they can require employees to declare their vaccination status," she said.
With more and more employees heading back into the office after working at home for large parts over the last two years, some might ask their boss to avoid sitting next to someone who is unvaccinated.
Dalziel said this request could be granted but it depends on who the employee is.
"If they are immunocompromised there might be some good reasons why they don't want to sit next to them," she said.
"The other thing I would say to that employee is, are you going to the supermarket, are you going out to other public areas, how are you managing your health situation so we can understand that for our work environment.
"So it will depend on exactly what they are doing but employers will be challenged by people who need to be social distance from people who are unvaccinated."
Watch the full interview above.
