Qantas implements mandatory vaccination after Morrison government refuses

The nation's largest airline will require its frontline employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 within three months.

Qantas and Jetstar pilots, cabin crew and airport workers will have until November 15 to be fully jabbed, while the deadline for other employees, such as those in head office, to be fully immunised is March 31, next year.

The flying kangaroo's company policy comes after it publicly called for a mandatory vaccination policy for the entire aviation sector.

The federal government has refused to implement mandatory vaccinations except for aged-care and international aviation, putting the onus on a company to decide whether all staff need to be immunised.

"Having a fully vaccinated workforce will safeguard all of our people against the virus and also protect our customers and the large amount of communities that we fly to," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said.

"We believe we have an obligation of duty of care for our customers and employees to make the workplace as safe as possible."

Mandatory jabs were increasingly becoming a global standard and Mr Joyce expected more Australian companies to adopt it.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed Qantas' decision, saying it was "reasonable" request by the airline which had surveyed roughly 60 per cent of its workforce.

"They have a reasonable position to be able to make this request and they've gone about it, I think, in a very engaged way," Mr Morrison said.

A company-wide survey which 12,000 staff responded to showed 89 per cent had already received the vaccine or made an appointment.

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Of those, 60 per cent were fully vaccinated, 77 per cent had received one dose and 12 per cent were booked in or planned to do so.

About three-quarters of people believed the jab should be mandatory and were concerned about working with unvaccinated employees.

Just 4 per cent of people were unwilling or unable get the jab, with 7 per cent undecided or preferring not to say.

"If other employees decided that they're not taking the jab, they are deciding, I think, that aviation isn't the area for them," Mr Joyce said.

"We will have limited redeployment opportunities given that the organisation has significantly shrunk in the last year or so because of COVID."

Virgin Australia said it was currently working through whether it would implement a mandatory vaccination policy.

"Like other airlines around the world, we are considering whether requiring vaccination for some or all work groups may be the best way to protect the health and safety of the whole workforce, and in turn the community and everyone's way of life," a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

"This means conducting our own risk assessments and consulting work groups and union representatives to determine the best way to ensure our entire workforce is protected from COVID19."

Qantas will grant exemptions for employees who provide documented medical proof as to why they cannot be vaccinated, but this is expected to be a very rare occurrence.

Qantas is set to require international travellers to show proof of vaccination when people can again fly overseas.

No decision has been made about domestic passengers.

The airline is talking to its contractors interested in mandating jabs, but says it's a decision for those organisations.

State and territory governments will need ensure employers won't be legally liable for any action an employee may bring under workplace health and safety rules over non-vaccination.

"We're not running a mandatory vaccination program and it is also not reasonable that an employer may feel they have to put some sort of mandate in place to protect themselves potentially from some health and safety laws," Mr Morrison said earlier this month.

Meanwhile, NSW, South Australia and New Zealand require aviation workers supporting international flights to be vaccinated.

Canned food producer SPC is mandating vaccines for employees from the end of November.

Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank are rolling out in-house vaccine programs to frontline staff.

With AAP

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