Don’t vax-bully, warns AWU

Kalgoorlie Miner

Tuesday 23rd November 2021

TOM ROBINSON

Goldfields mining companies have been put “on notice” by the Australian Workers Union, and urged to “engage openly and honestly” with workers as the COVID-19 vaccination deadline for the industry approaches.

All workers in the resources industry must receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 jab by December 1 but the first-dose rate in the Goldfields, where the mining industry dominates, is just 73.1 per cent.

As the deadline looms, AWU WA State secretary Brad Gandy said there had been inconsistencies between employer communication, company policies and the resource industry worker directions from the WA Government on the vaccine mandates.

He said this created confusion and uncertainty among workers, and the union would this week send its COVID-19 response coordinators to its Kalgoorlie-Boulder office to hear members’ concerns and offer them support.

“The AWU is putting mining companies in Kalgoorlie-Goldfields on notice to treat your workers with respect, engage openly and honestly, and don’t seek to exploit the situation to bully and intimidate,” Mr Gandy said.

“As we know, employers in the mining industry have a track record of overreacting and using extreme approaches to rules to intimidate and bully their workforces.

“The AWU supports responsible health measures, but we will never accept our members being bullied and treated with disrespect.

“With less than two weeks until the Resource Industry Worker Directions come into effect, I encourage every Kalgoorlie-Goldfields member to attend our Kalgoorlie office . . . to raise any concerns you may have relating to your employment or the Resource Industry Worker Directions.” Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive Paul Everingham said the group’s members had aimed to work safely and effectively throughout the pandemic and anecdotal evidence indicated the majority of the WA mining and resource sector’s workforce was fully vaccinated or in the process of doing so.

“CME member companies continue to support WA Health’s vaccine rollout, including facilitating vaccination clinics, like those

which have operated in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the Northern Goldfields and at Perth Airport, and providing workers with information they might require or seek about vaccines,” he said.

“CME’s safety, health and wellbeing team also continues to liaise and collaborate with member companies, the WA Government and WA Health on the details of the vaccination mandate for the sector.”