17 August 2021
We have circulated the results from AMIC’s industry-wide and extensive survey of 50 meat processing and smallgoods manufacturing sites across Australia in early August (33% industry response rate). These are all 1B category businesses and employees, and why we are involved in the mandatory vaccination debate. These essential workers, who are in a high-risk sector, seem not to have been prioritised.
As an industry, we will continue to encourage workers to get vaccinated with whatever vaccine is available, however, we need to ensure that employees have confidence in the vaccine they are receiving in order for our industry, which has been classed as a high-risk category, to be fully vaccinated.
AMIC is at the forefront on the public discussion of mandatory vaccinations. The survey results back up AMIC’s position that there is a challenge for our industry to go down the path of mandatory vaccination while there are current issues around vaccine supply, vaccination hesitancy, and more importantly, that 45% of members do not feel that they are being prioritised in the 1B high risk category vaccine rollout.
