From 18 October 2021, only adults who are fully vaccinated are allowed to work in or visit all businesses that are allowed to open in NSW.
Unvaccinated adults are allowed only to work in or visit essential retail premises such as chemists and supermarkets and businesses with take away or click and collect.
How should businesses treat unvaccinated staff?
Businesses should strongly recommend that unvaccinated adult staff obtain vaccination advice from a general practitioner.
If the staff decide to remain unvaccinated (without having a medical contraindication certificate), the business may either put them on paid or unpaid leave, or give notice to terminate their employment, or restrict them to working from home.
As to unvaccinated staff in critical retail premises, the trend amongst large retail businesses is to adopt a vaccination policy along the lines of the NSW Public Health Order.
One thing is clear – unvaccinated staff (without a certificate) are not able to come to work at the business premises of non-essential businesses until at least 1 December 2021 in NSW.