UNIONS are investigating how to support teachers who won't be vaccinated by the November 8 deadline.
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More than 130 people from a range of sectors - including some under the banner of new organisation National Education United - gathered in Foreshore Park in Newcastle on Friday, for one of several Reclaim The Line strikes held across the country against mandatory vaccination.
A Public Health Order requires all education workers to have received both vaccine doses by November 8. Schools reopen from October 18.
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Independent Education Union NSW/ACT Hunter organiser Therese Fitzgibbon said the campaign was organised and vocal, but didn't reflect the majority of the IEU membership.
"We don't support rallies against mandatory vaccinations," Ms Fitzgibbon said.
"There are safety issues at play here, we're seeing rising cases in the Hunter and I don't think it's an appropriate action."
She said the IEU had sympathy for members who saw vaccination as a "genuinely confronting issue" and were "anxious and scared" about the requirement.
"However we are also of the very clear opinion that it's a social responsibility and that it's in the interests of all school communities to ensure that staff and where possible students are vaccinated."
"We will certainly do all we can to work with employers to find ways to accommodate those who opt not to be vaccinated at this stage," she said.
"We're very conscious of the fact the order is for 90 days, which takes us to the end of the school year, we are very conscious that as of the first of December, under the health orders, unvaccinated people are allowed to re-engage with society, so we just don't know what that means for next year for school employees."
Ms Fitzgibbon said she had spoken to employers in recent days about options for staff who will be unvaccinated for the duration of the Public Health Order, which she said could include continuing to work from home and taking paid or unpaid leave.
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the federation had been encouraging "all teachers to be vaccinated since the onset of this wave of the pandemic".
"We remain in discussions with the Department [of Education] to ensure the safe, ongoing employment of teachers who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical contraindication."
Hunter Workers secretary Leigh Shears said he hadn't been aware of the strike.
He said the body supported vaccination, but he could see why making it mandatory in some sectors had raised some concerns, especially in the context of what he described as a mismanaged government rollout.
"There's more effective ways of getting an outcome that you desire - mandatory vaccinations is probably more the heavy stick, while consultation and education programs and those sorts of things are more effective," he said.
"That's not to say [mandating vaccination] may or not be necessary, but there's a process to go through that workers and employers can come to to reach that and to reduce the angst that's happening."
He said vaccination was a work health and safety issue, but there were "ways to go about implementing controls" and often other measures that could also be put in place to reduce the risk of transmission.
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