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kano āraimate mate
KOWHEORI-19
Our position on COVID-19
vaccination
Our top priority is the health, safety and wellbeing of our customers,
our workforce and the communities we serve. We are using every
available tool to help reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in
our communities.
You should know
We’re currently reviewing our approach to vaccination. While we carry out our
review, the policies and guidelines below remain in place. You can read more about
the review of our risk assessment, policies and guidelines on
OurAuckland. ************************************
Vaccinations play an important role in keeping everyone safe, especially in our
workplaces, services and facilities. Led by experts and scientific evidence, we’ve
carefully considered the role of vaccinations in helping to protect people from
becoming infected or falling seriously ill from COVID-19.
We’ve also been guided by central government requirements to help manage the
spread of the virus, legal obligations, such as roles covered by vaccination orders,
and our duty of care to look after our people and the people of Auckland.
Our approach has taken into consideration the health and safety risks to our
organisation and our communities and is being reviewed regularly to ensure we
continue to manage any risks and new developments as effectively as possible.
Meanwhile, because of the very real and present risk of contracting and transmitting
the COVID-19 virus, evidence of a My Vaccine Pass is currently required for:
• Employees who work in our facilities, offices, or out in the field
• Contractors and volunteers who work in our facilities and offices, or who work
under our direct control and influence
• Elected members in order to enter council offices and meeting spaces
• All customers entering council facilities who fall within a My Vaccine Pass
requirement.
Evidence of a My Vaccine Pass is not currently required for:
• Customers younger than 12 years and 3 months and school-aged children
participating in education outside the classroom activities and school-
organised sports.
• Customers who are accessing a service outside a council-controlled and
staffed facility or confined space, such as library click and collect customers,
park users and enforcement customers, such as animal and noise control
• Council staff who don’t work within our offices, facilities or out in the field and
have been given an exception to the requirement.
Additionally, third party hirers of our sites, buildings or facilities where no council staff
are present can choose whether they work within the COVID-19 Protection
Framework or require a My Vaccine Pass.
Below you will find more detailed information and background relating to
vaccinations and how it applies to our people, customers, elected members and
contractors.
A vaccination policy for our people
We have developed a vaccination policy for our people in consultation with our
workforce.
The policy currently requires all our employees who work in our facilities, offices or
out in the field, and a range of people who work for us, to be fully vaccinated against
COVID-19.
This policy was agreed after carefully considering feedback from our people, looking
closely at the risk posed by COVID-19 and how we could best manage it.
Our top priority in making this decision is the health and safety of our people and that
of our customers and the communities we serve.
What you need to know:
• When you engage face-to-face with an Auckland Council employee, you will
be engaging with a vaccinated staff member.
• Our policy was implemented on 3 December 2021 and staff were given until
17 January 2022 to comply with the requirement to be fully vaccinated.
• Some of our people remain unvaccinated, and we’re working with them on
their options. Until we’ve reached an agreement with them, they won’t be able
to enter council workplaces unless they’re fully vaccinated.
To learn more about how we developed this policy:
• Read more about our staff vaccination policy on
OurAuckland
•
Read our staff vaccination policy (PDF 235KB)
•
Read a summary of advice to the Executive Leadership team (PDF 139KB)
•
Read a summary of feedback from our staff on this policy (PDF 616KB)
•
Read the risk assessment documentation that informed our policy (PDF
816KB).
Vaccination guidelines for our elected
members
Auckland Council has agreed vaccination guidelines for the Mayor, 20 councillors
and 149 local board members, around access to council offices and meeting spaces
across the region.
Allowing elected members to perform their democratic and representative roles,
while maintaining their health and safety and that of staff and the public, was a key
consideration in the final decision.
What you need to know:
• During the Red setting of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, political
meetings and workshops are being held virtually. This reduces the risk to
individuals, as well as the risk of an exposure event that might impact multiple
members at the same time, which could affect a local board or committee’s
ability to reach a quorum and make decisions.
• Under the Orange and Green settings, the council can support more physical
attendance at meetings and workshops and will align to organisational
guidelines around office and meeting space capacity. This will include
physical distancing requirements to ensure the safety of staff and members of
the public, and a mixture of in-person and hybrid meetings to ensure there is
no disruption to meeting schedules.
• To ensure the safety of our staff, when our offices and meeting spaces are
open, only those elected members who are fully vaccinated against COVID-
19 will be able to attend meetings in person or work in council offices.
• Elected members who are not vaccinated, or don’t want to disclose their
vaccination status, are being asked to continue working remotely during
periods where there is a risk of the virus circulating in the community. Council
staff will continue to support them to work remotely and participate in all
meetings and workshops online.
• The guidelines apply to the council’s offices and meeting spaces. If an elected
member wants to attend a local community meeting or hold a meeting with a
constituent, they will need to meet the requirements of the venue of that
meeting or meeting organisers.
• The guidelines will be reviewed in line with changes to COVID-19 Protection
Framework.
To learn more about how we developed these guidelines:
• Read more about the guidelines on
OurAuckland
•
Read our elected member guidelines (PDF 100KB)
•
Read the risk assessment documentation that informed our policy (PDF
914KB).
Our interim customer vaccination
position
All our staffed services and facilities will require the use of vaccination passes until
the end of June 2022, although this position can be altered at any time when risk
factors change.
We made this decision after considering several factors, including the
government’s
COVID-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system) and vaccination
order.
What you need to know:
• This position helps to protect our staff and customers, including those more
vulnerable and children under the age of 12. It enables us to reduce the risk of
any potential spread of COVID-19 within our facilities.
• We also comply with government-mandated vaccination requirements, for
example in our education-based services and all council staff that work in our
facilities must be vaccinated.
• Vaccine passes are not required at any of our facilities for anyone under 12
years and 3 months and school-aged children participating in education
outside the classroom activities and school-organised sports.
• We will not ask our people to attend a call-out or visit a site if they don't
believe the right COVID-19 safety measures are in place.
• Our sites are also covered by rigorous cleaning schedules and additional
COVID protection measures are in place.
• We will undertake a review of the risk assessment that informs our position
each month, which will allow us to adapt to any changes in Government
health policies or risk levels.
Facilities that require vaccination passes:
• Gyms and fitness functions
• Learn to Swim programmes (for customers older than 12 years and 3 months)
• Recreation and leisure centres
• Pools and aquatic centres
• Holiday parks
• Libraries
• Arts facilities
• Community centres
• Animal shelters
• Service centres (integrated and standalone)
• Cemetery offices (with alternatives)
• Visitor centres – Arataki and Auckland Botanic Gardens
• Tipping Point (Waitākere) recycling centre.
To learn more about how we developed this position:
• Read more about the policy on
OurAuckland
•
Read the risk assessment documentation that informed our position (PDF
881KB).
Using our services if you are not
vaccinated
People without vaccination passes will still be able to access our services. The
service may be delivered to unvaccinated customers in a different way than before.
Our obligation to our communities is to have our facilities available for use and
provide alternatives to those without a vaccination pass. For example, in our
libraries, we have continued to provide our highly popular Wi-Fi, digital and ‘click-
and-collect’ services.
Facilities that do not require vaccination passes:
• Baches, camping sites and lodges (regional parks)
• Community venues for hire through booking
• Cemeteries (excluding offices)
• Waste transfer stations.
Why we have applied this policy and the
impact on unvaccinated customers
First and foremost, our vaccination policies and guidelines have been developed to
protect our staff and customers, including those more vulnerable and children under
the age of 12. They enable us to reduce the risk of any potential spread of COVID-19
within our council buildings, amongst our workforce and in our facilities.
The government’s COVID Protection Framework makes allowances for public
facilities to open at each ‘traffic light’ setting. However, it also allows local
government organisations to make informed decisions on how they manage their
facilities.
As an operational matter, the decision to require the use of vaccination passes at our
staffed services and facilities was made by the council’s Executive Leadership team
based on government guidance and our own risk assessments.
The council’s Governing Body were informed of the decision that was made.
While not everyone will agree with this approach, we feel it is the best way of
managing safe access to our facilities for our staff and customers.
You can read the risk assessments for each policy (or guideline) in the above
sections. These documents are referenced for source information and the following
links offer additional information:
•
Government Unite Against COVID website
•
Ministry of Health COVID-19 resources
Our request to our customers
Follow the
Ministry of Health rules. This is for your safety and for the safety of our
people.
Support us by using the full range of risk management measures that we have
implemented by:
• Wearing face masks that are compliant with Government guidelines
• Physical distancing
• Record keeping and scanning in
• Using hand sanitiser (provided).
Like you, our people have had to navigate their way through this pandemic. This has
been challenging for us all.
We are here to help you. Remember to treat our staff with kindness and respect.
A policy for our contractors
Like our employees, contractors who supply services on our behalf will often interact
with our customers, and work in or use our buildings, sites and facilities.
The vaccination policy for our contractors was finalised following consultation with
many of our contractors and suppliers and agreed after carefully considering the
feedback they gave.
What you need to know:
• The contractor vaccination policy requires contractors who provide services
on behalf of, and under the direct control and influence of the council, and
also requires them to interact in person with other staff, customers or
members of the community, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
• This sits alongside our staff vaccination policy, which requires any contractors
who provide services inside an Auckland Council workplace, to be fully
vaccinated.
• Some contractors who have minimal or no interaction with council staff or
members of the public, and don’t need to access any council buildings, aren’t
required to be vaccinated. This also applies where the contractor has done a
risk assessment using the tool provided in the policy and determined that the
risk is low.
• We also don’t require anyone carrying out their work for us in their own office,
premises or site, to be vaccinated.
To learn more about how we developed this policy:
• Read more about the policy on
OurAuckland
•
Read our contractor vaccination policy (PDF 296KB)
•
Read the risk assessment documentation that informed our policy (PDF
146KB).
Council-controlled organisations
Our policies do not apply to council-controlled organisations (CCOs) like Auckland
Transport, Auckland Unlimited, Eke Panuku and Watercare. Our CCOs have their
own responsibilities under the
Health and Safety at Work Act and have formed their
own policies.
•
Auckland Unlimited
•
Eke Panuku vaccination policy
Official information requests
Find information provided to requestors under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act.
