MANY Australian abattoir staff remain unprotected or under-protected against COVID, a recent vaccination survey undertaken by the Australian Meat Industry Council suggests.

The survey found that only four in ten of staff working at more than 80pc of the abattoirs involved in the survey are currently fully vaccinated. Forty percent of the abattoirs said that only one if five of their staff had received their first injection.

The survey represented 50 meat processing sites across Australia.

Of the respondents, the results showed that on average nationally, only 12pc of members have 60pc or more their total workforce fully vaccinated, AMIC said in a statement.

More than half of the vaccinations were done at vaccination hubs off-site, and a further 25pc at a doctor’s surgery. Only 11pc were on-site vaccinations (Click here to see full survey graphic).

Vaccine hesitancy

“AMIC is supportive of members taking the most appropriate action in all business and people matters to maintain a safe work environment – even if this includes mandating COVID vaccinations,” AMIC chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said.

“Our industry is aware that there is a large amount of AstraZeneca vaccine available, however due to changing health advice, we have seen vaccination hesitancy, which shows in our survey results,” he said.

“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 high-risk category, to be fully vaccinated.”

The survey results backed up AMIC’s position that there was a challenge for the red meat industry to go down the path of mandatory vaccination while there are current issues around vaccine supply, vaccination hesitancy, and more importantly, that 45pc of members did not feel that they were being prioritised in the 1B high-risk category vaccine rollout.

“We are a 1B vaccination priority industry, yet nearly half of our members surveyed don’t believe they have been prioritised in this way by local health services,” Mr Hutchinson said.

Of the respondents, 30pc had vaccination incentives in place for staff, which ranged from cash, gift cards, food vouchers, meat trays and paid half-days.

“We need the total vaccination rates across the meat industry improved greatly across Australia,” Mr Hutchinson said.

Source: AMIC