The overwhelming majority of Tasmanian health workers have complied with a Public Health Direction to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and I commend them for their efforts.
At the deadline of 12.01am today, 15,970 Department of Health employees or 99 per cent of the workforce had reported their vaccination or medical exemption evidence as required.
I would like to thank each and every one of these people for making sure they have done what they can to help keep Tasmanians – including some of the most vulnerable – as safe as they can be against COVID-19.
I know that every day this workforce takes on the responsibility of looking after Tasmanians, but it is especially pleasing that these people have been vaccinated to protect not just themselves, but all of us.
It is extremely important that in our health settings we do all we can to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. A vaccinated health workforce is a key part of that.
For the small number of employees who have either not been vaccinated, or have not informed the Department of Health of their vaccination evidence, they are no longer able to work for the Department, and will not be paid.
170 employees by headcount failed to comply which includes 88 permanent employees (which represents 63 FTE) and 82 fixed term or casual employees, representing approximately 1 per cent of our workforce.
In terms of impact on permanent positions, on our most recent award headcount records this includes:
Pleasingly, due to the relatively small numbers of people who failed to comply with the Public Health Direction by the deadline, it is not anticipated that these measures will cause any interruption to service delivery.