Australian franchisors are getting on board the vaccination train in the fight against Covid-19, with 60 per cent of franchise systems surveyed planning to or actively encouraging staff to get vaccinated.
The Cheesecake Shop is one franchise that has gone one step further and is incentivising head office staff to get vaccinated.
However, the Franchise Council of Australia’s latest Pulse Check survey reveals the majority of respondents (43 per cent) are unlikely to provide incentives to their staff or network for vaccination; a further 40 per cent were undecided.
A significant 73 per cent indicated they would not be incentivising customer vaccinations, with only 3 per cent planning to place restrictions on customers who were not vaccinated.
Inside FMCG reports full vaccination will become mandatory for one employer in Australia, with manufacturer SPC’s staff and visitors required to be vaccinated to gain entry to any of the company’s locations, including manufacturing sites, by the end of November.
Ken Rosebery, CEO of The Cheesecake Shop, told Inside Franchise Business Executive, “I’m not moving down that path yet. What it is legal to do, is offer a reward.
“We’ve got about 50 staff and we usually pay a Christmas bonus. This year we’ll pay the amount in December but it’s a vaccination bonus staff can get by showing us their digital certificate or sending a confidential letter, or a medical letter saying they can’t have the vaccination.
“It’s worth a few hundred dollars, the minimum would be $300 at Christmas.”
While the chain’s shop staff working in close quarters is a concern, Rosebery is particularly wary of the spread of Covid in The Cheesecake Shop warehouses supplying the network of more than 250 stores.
“We’ve got essential workers in warehouses, if one gets sick it would shut down for 14 days. We’ve very vulnerable.”
Following the essential guidelines set by the TGA is crucial he says. Read more about the legal considerations for employers and employee vaccinations.
But Rosebery is also calling for leadership.
“It’s about leadership in your own business. There’s a pathway out of this, so set a target and run hard at it. For our stores, we are encouraging franchisees to show leadership to their own teams.
“We have to consider if people who are unvaccinated are a health and safety risk for others. We want to see some leadership from government on this.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already rejected any suggestion of government regulating for mandatory vaccinations.
“It is not the intention of the Commonwealth, nor of the states and territories, to create any special laws in these areas,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
What’s happening in the US?
In the US mandatory vaccination is a growing trend among employers, Fortune reports.
United Airlines, for one, will require new staff to be vaccinated, while the state of California will insist all state employees prove they have been vaccinated or wear masks at work and undertake weekly Covid testing.
“Some states, though, have sided with employees on pandemic-related matters,” the publication points out.
The push back includes regulations preventing employers forcing staff to disclose their vaccination status, limits on contact-tracing technology that would reveal employee locations to employers, and an executive order prohibiting state employers from varying rules according to workers’ vaccination status.
