Critical Employment Law Update

Voices For Freedom

Late Friday night (5 November 2021) the government made an abrupt law change amending the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 (Vaccination Order (No 3)) by introducing the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing and Vaccinations) Amendment Order 2021. As a result we’ve had to update the information on our website: The new updated exemption information is here.

We also ran an employment law webinar dealing with these changes yesterday. This is an important webinar to watch. We mention options relating to law, the new changes and practical tips.

Be sure to sign up for the next employment webinar on Tuesday evening.

The main changes in the New Order: See our notes for more detailed information. This is a quick summary but you have to see our full notes to understand.

1. Several categories of persons covered by the mandate have been redefined including “health care practitioners” and “care and support workers”

2. The new clause 7A has been revoked in its entirety meaning that all individual exemptions have been revoked. In a nutshell, the exemption you may have obtained (legitimately) this past week will no longer be valid. However, file it safely, watch the above webinar and prioritise this Tuesday’s webinar (as it is much easier to explain on video) AND PLEASE READ THROUGH OUR NOTES which break down the changes. We will endeavour to do a short form video tomorrow to share.

3. New transitional provisions affecting police employees involved in health or educational facilities (Schedule new part 4, clause 9)

4. New transitional provision for workers who were exempt – essentially providing a one-week extension for prison workers and workers who handle affected items

5. Appears to narrow the “affected workers” related to prisons by making reference to corrections prison rather than prison (if you are a prison worker we recommend you look into this more). Reminder Re Non Mandated Workers (ie everyone not covered by govt mandates): At this time (7 November 2021) there is no government mandate requiring vaccination for the group mentioned by the Prime Minister the other week in relation to “traffic lights” and “vaccine passports”. That is, “close contact” businesses like gyms, hospitality businesses, hair dressers etc, that would be (apparently and again there is as yet no law on this) required to operate with a vaccine passport system.

Any mandates that are being “required” outside of the government mandates are being sort by your employer of their own volition. We have materials to help you with this on our website.

Voices For Freedom Resources:

You can find more general information on a wide range of topics and template letters on a wide range of topics on No Jab, No Job, mask mandates, PCR testing, other types of testing, kids and jabs and more here: Voices For Freedom Resources Page.

And please, for any friends or colleagues needing this info, share it by way of the links below. That way they get on our email list and we can connect with them with important updates and upcoming webinars etc.

BLURB TO SHARE RE EXEMPTIONS

Hey, did you hear that there have been big changes made to the laws around exemptions over the weekend? Voices For Freedom have put together an information pack about the changes which also includes the initial information that still applies. They’ve also made this webinar to explain changes and doing another one on Tuesday. Check it out here (even if you’ve already signed up before if you sign up again you won’t get more emails, you just get directed to the right page.) Click on “Exemption Pack” plus check out all the other info there.www.voices for freedom.co.nz/employment

Link for other webinar here:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/3916330607988/WN_GGMaFG_QQiykL420iUEMuQ

BLURB TO SHARE RE GENERAL ASSISTANCE WITH COVID LAWS ETC

Hey did you see Voices For Freedom have put together an information pack on all sorts of info on a wide range of topics with template letters on No Jab, No Job, mask mandates, PCR testing, other types of testing, kids and jabs and more here. Check it out here: www.voicesforfreedom.co.nz/resources

Remember. They are pushing back because you are pushing back. Hold The Line. There are more options. You are not alone. Over 1 million Kiwis are NOT jabbed.