ERA has supported the move
New Zealand's Employment Relations Authority (ERA) sided with the Customs after it fired a border protection officer for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine despite a government mandate in April requiring frontline border workers to be vaccinated.
According to the woman, she was not qualified for a compulsory vaccination because her line of work did not require her to board nor transport people to and from affected ships. She said she was also not tasked of interacting with people in quarantine, Stuff reported.
There were plans to redeploy her to another job, but she could get fired if they were unable to give her another role. Customs said it offered her a paid stand-down period which she accepted, but she later wanted reinstatement.
Read more: Worker fired for refusing vaccine loses unfair dismissal claim
ERA's David Beck validated Customs' conclusion and said the ex-employee's role did warrant a vaccination.
"I am satisfied that the conclusion that was reached was thoroughly considered by Customs in a very difficult contextual background," Beck said as quoted by Stuff.
He confirmed that Customs gave her enough information but criticised its speed on responding to the employee's correspondence. Despite this, he praised the agency for encouraging its employees to get the jabs amid the spread of "contentious sources of information" regarding the matter.
Customs people and capability deputy chief executive Jacinda Funnell said all of its frontline staff are now vaccinated, with most of the four per cent of former frontline employees who were not vaccinated by May 1 redeployed.
Eight fixed-term staff were terminated after they were unable to find suitable redeployment roles for them, according to Funnell, who said enough time were given to employees to air their concerns on the vaccines.
