when there is another alternative to assist employers to meet their H&S obligations and that is by means of testing (PCR) as testing is arguable a better control measure than vaccines because research has shown that vaccinated workers can still carry the virus. — robyn moses
It is frustrating for me that "this virus" seems to have caused everyone to think that there is one single "silver bullet" to beat Covid that everyone should be following. Even the advice to complete a risk assessment for mandatory vaccinations is worded in a way that implies the process is - decide you want to mandate vaccinations, then do a risk assessment to show that mandatory vaccinations will reduce the risk"
We need to stop discussing this as an exclusive this or that issue and start discussing it as a range of actions we can take to best manage the risks.
The government is pushing the vaccination card - let them do that, provide your employees that want to get vaccinated with the time to do so (and to recover afterwards if needed), but don't overstep the mark thinking that if you can get all your workers vaccinated you will have sufficiently managed the risk.
I don't see how they are pushing PCR testing as an direct alternative to vaccinations. Firstly being that you are still in the same boat as vaccinations since you cannot make anyone get tested as again it is a medical treatment (the government has established that requiring mandatory testing for managing a Covid outbreak, e.g. for contact tracing and where a person has been identified as a close contact / at higher risk of being infected, is allowable under the bill of rights. However I do not think "to allow a business to operate (or operate more freely)" would be an acceptable reason to limit a person's right to refuse PCR testing). And secondly it is not equivalent - vaccines reduce the risk of a person experiencing serious symptoms (and could be claimed to reduce the risk of infections from not having someone coughing/sneezing the virus all over the workplace, but then again it could also increase the risk as there will now be more asymptomatic / mildly symptomatic cases coming to work that can still transmit the virus), whereas the PCR testing identifies (after a 1-2+ days) those who have the virus present in their systems so they can be removed from the workplace to reduce the risk of infections... i.e. they both have the potential to reduce the risk, just by different means and therefore should be applied where (if) they are suitable to the work/workplace.
In my opinion a NZ business's Covid risk assessment should be focused on the risks that the business creates for a worker (or a person affected by the activities) regarding Covid, in the framework of a increase of risk compared to a "normal" member of the public, e.g.
A typical retail business would not require any more controls over what the NZ Government requirements for the general public (face masks while indoors, limited occupancy, etc.).
Working in a workplace with people more vulnerable to Covid (e.g. nursing homes) requires controls to manage the risk of transmission of the virus to those people.
Work which increases the exposure to the virus (e.g. Covid testing labs, MIQ facilities) requires controls to manage the risk of infections of workers during work.
This is ofcorse with a viewpoint from a safety perspective... a business continuity perspective would look somewhat different, and we need to be sure that the controls that are put in place in the name of safety are not the guise of safety but in fact only there for other purposes.