IN hindsight, it is unsurprising that BHP has written to Mount Arthur workers who did not provide requested evidence of COVID vaccination, and stood them down without pay before disciplinary action aimed at termination.
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On August 27 BHP announced a "milestone" delivery of 5000 Rapid Antigen Testing kits, making a RAT test a condition of entry at Mount Arthur.
On August 31 it began a workplace vaccination drive, warning that it was "assessing" whether to make vaccination a condition of entry to BHP sites across Australia.
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On October 7 it confirmed the "no-vax no-entry" policy, with a starting date of Wednesday this week.
As this was happening, BHP began asking workers to confirm their vaccination status.
Those who had not responded at the November 10 deadline received "show cause" letters saying they were facing "termination" because they had refused to comply with a "lawful and reasonable direction without reasonable excuse".
Faced with the loss of a job, some - perhaps most - will fold their tent and be vaccinated, if unhappily.
Others, such as an employee who spoke yesterday with the Newcastle Herald, say they have made up their minds, knowing this puts them at odds with the majority.
This pandemic is a health issue like no other.
Local differences remain, but most countries are following a central World Health Organisation template. COVID has resulted in draconian restrictions on freedom of movement.
In Australia, most people have accepted these changes.
Protests have been sporadic, and small by world scale.
The federal government opposes mandatory vaccination, but regular demands to produce vaccination certificates has the same effect.
Participate or be excluded.
In this light, a Fair Work Commission hearing later this month is shaping as a test case for workplaces nationally.
The unvaccinated may have genuine concerns about the jab, but most Australians have accepted the risks, and COVID cases are falling, presumably as a result.
If vaccination had purely individual impacts, then the dissidents would have a stronger case.
But vaccination is always about group protection as well as individual safety.
As "full" vaccination approaches, we have to decide how to treat those who decline the jab, but still want to participate in society.
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