Stuff | 6 Dec 2021

Staff at takeaway food and drink businesses no longer have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 despite the Government earlier saying they did.

Two weeks ago Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood said all staff working in hospitality needed to have their first vaccination injection by the time the traffic light system came into effect on Friday.

But on Friday night, official food and drink service guidelines were changed to say if a business is solely takeaway food and drink, then workers do not need to be vaccinated. Also, if they opt to not ask for vaccine passes, they can operate as takeaway.

A national takeaway chain owner Stuff spoke to, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Government’s original advice had resulted in her having to terminate the employment of two unvaccinated full-time staff members, and it couldn’t open one of its stores due to a staff shortage.

All up the mandate cost the business about $20,000 and resulted in emotional distress for the two workers, she said.

“The emotional impact on them has been huge.”

Under the updated guidelines the chain is allowed to employ unvaccinated staff.

The staff who had been let go were too distraught to return to their jobs, she said.

“Even though we have reversed the termination, the girls are emotionally broken.”

The owner, who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of public backlash, said the mental health impacts stemming from the Government’s actions were outweighing the damage caused by Covid-19.

“This is meant to be about Covid and keeping healthy. The mental health distress that they have caused far exceeds any Covid concerns.”

She said she felt untrusting of the Government now.

“I feel really disappointed that we tried to do the right thing. It really puts me off doing it further.”

The Government should not have put a plan out without carefully considering all aspects of it and the impact it had on people’s lives, she said.

“This is not good enough. We’re all trying to comply.

“There’s got to be some kind of accountability.”

She said the terminations were left until the very last minute, with redundancy letters sent at 5pm on Friday.

Both workers were mothers, one of which had been with the company for six years, she said.

Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois​​ said it received an email at 7pm on Friday from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Covid-19 business advice team confirming the change.

The email said the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ministry of Health, and MBIE had a further look at the issue of takeaways, and they would run under the retail rules as the public health risk profile was similar.

Bidois​ said the saga had been “harrowing” for business owners and some were in tears when she told them of the change.

“The response was they burst into tears, that’s how affected they had been.”

Just days earlier MBIE had said takeaway businesses did fall under the vaccine mandate, a rule many, including the association and Hospitality NZ, were surprised by.

She said that news had been “quite horrific” for businesses that had unvaccinated staff but thought they would be able to continue operating as takeaway.

“Many of the businesses had actually planned on closing because they didn’t have the staff to operate their businesses.

“But, then again, it flip-flopped and changed back to ‘no no they don’t fall under the mandate.’”

“So quite a harrowing ride for those businesses that were affected.”

She said it was a good outcome in the end.