Unions urge New South Wales government to introduce vaccination leave

The New South Wales government should lead by example and provide vaccination leave to all public sector workers, said Unions NSW, which represents over 600,000 affiliated members and 67 affiliated unions in the Australian state. 

“One of the barriers that workers face to getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is taking the time to do it while they work”, it wrote in a Twitter post. “That’s why we are calling on the NSW Government to lead by example and provide 1/2 day paid leave to all workers so they can get vaccinated.”

“Every barrier and impediment to vaccination must be removed as soon as possible,” said Mark Morey, Secretary of Unions NSW, according to 9 News. 

“There are many things slowing the vaccine rollout, but one element is the cost of missing work, especially for people who are insecurely employed and on modest incomes.

He added that the federal government also needed to roll out vaccination leave for casual and contract workers. 

READ: Many Australians made jobless at the start of the pandemic were under 25

Parts of Australia are now under a lockdown after cases of the Delta variant emerged. This has renewed questions on the country’s vaccination rate, which is one of the lowest of any developed country, with only 5% of the population fully vaccinated.