Paid vaccination leave in force for daytime appointments
Efforts to fight Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy here extends to Scania Australia offering employees time off work to get jabbed.
The company in Australia is encouraging employees who can and wish to be vaccinated to take the opportunity to protect their health and reduce the chances of passing on the virus within their working environment.
Scania director of people and culture Michele Gellatly says employees are encouraged to book a vaccination appointment during the working day.
“We’ll still pay them even though they’ll be away from the workshop or the office,” Gellatly says.
“We want as many of our employees who can be to be vaccinated.
“We’re directly supporting the transport industry that delivers vital supplies of food and materials all around Australia, and our technicians are considered to be essential workers.
“A core Scania promise to our truck, bus and engines customers is that we support their uptime and we can only deliver on this if we have healthy employees who are able to work.”
Scania is cognisant of some difficulties difficult for employees to arrange out-of-work-hours appointments, particularly in Victoria where there is a high demand for vaccinations.
“But we believe that it is in the best interests of our people, our business and servicing our customers that we encourage them to be vaccinated,” Gellatly adds.
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“We are doing what we can to allow employees to arrange a timely vaccination appointment.”
The approach is similar to Scania’s flu jab policy but with a logistical difference.
“Each year we run onsite ‘flu vaccinations, but as we’re unable to bring the COVID-19 virus vaccination to Scania, we’re keen to send our team members out to be vaccinated at the government’s vaccination centres.
“Scania believes it has a duty of care to its employees and by encouraging them and making it easier for them to have the vaccination, this will help maintain their health and their productivity over the long term.
“It would be great if other transport businesses can follow our lead and encourage their employees to get vaccinated, even if it is undertaken during working hours.”