Hello All, it seems every week we are having to post up another video covering changes to the vaccination requirements for authorised workers living in impacted LGA’s requiring to travel outside their LGA for work but here we are again and we will discuss the latest changes in this update.

Originally on 30 August 2021, authorised workers were required to have either one dose of a covid -19 vaccine or the worksite was required to have rapid antigen testing in place.  However the raid antigen testing was scrapped at the last minute and the date was changed to the 6^th of September where now authorised workers would be required to have one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine or they would not be able to attend work.

Since then, the rules have changed again and it is unclear if this has been caused by genuine vaccine hesitancy or as a result of authorised workers not having sufficient access to their preferred vaccine.

Regardless the NSW government has updated the health advices as follows:

From 9 September 2021, if you are over the age of 16 and live in a local government area of concern, you must not leave your local government area for work unless you have:

• had at least 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or
• an appointment booked to be vaccinated on or before 19 September 2021 and have evidence of the appointment or
• evidence of a medical exemption

From 20 September 2021 you will only be able to leave your local government area for work if you have:

• had at least 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, or
• evidence of a medical exemption.

It should also be noted that these new requirements do not apply to the following industries who have their own set of vaccine requirements:

• Aged Care Workers
• Health Care Workers
• Airport Workers
• Construction Workers
• Disability & Early Childhood Workers
• Quarantine Workers and;
• Transport Workers

From On Demand HR’s perspective, it is proving a challenge to continue providing updates and understanding the fast changing health orders.  In fact it is almost a full time role in itself.  So we can understand that many businesses are finding it difficult to keep up and of course making forward planning almost impossible.

If your business is facing challenges understanding how the NSW health orders apply to your business or are facing any other HR or Workplace Relations challenge please do not hesitate to reach out to us by visiting ondemandhr.com.au and we are looking forward to seeing you in the next update.