COVID Vaccination and the workplace.

The Australian Institute of Health & Safety (AIHS) would like to invite you to join us on Wednesday 3 March 2021 for a facilitated panel discussion on COVID Vaccination and the workplace.

COVID-19 Vaccinations are now beginning to rollout to the Australian population. They are a critical control for the prevention of spread of the virus, and will therefore be a part of COVID risk management plans throughout Australian business, and one of the key considerations for health and safety people in managing workplace transmission risk. This raises a number of health and safety questions about the management of people who are vaccinated and those that are not. Are vaccinations mandatory in some businesses? Can you make vaccination mandatory? How should you manage – in all workplaces but especially those which are considered higher risk for transmission – if some of your people do not wish to be vaccinated ?

Participants will hear from a high level panel who will discuss these issues from a legal, WHS, and general health perspective, and leave with insights as to how to tackle these issues in your own workplace in the year ahead.

EVENTS DETAILS:
Date: Wednesday 3 March 2021
TIme: 16:00 - 17:00 AEDT
Location: Zoom Webinar (login details will be distributed 2-3 days prior)
Cost: Complimentary

SPEAKERS:

Alena Titterton Partner, Clyde & Co

Alena Titterton, a Partner in the Clyde and Co is a partner in the Regulation and Investigation practice specialising in health, safety and security. She is passionate about helping her clients become global safety leaders. Alena’s client experience spans both private and public sectors and includes defence, energy, gas, construction, infrastructure, mining, aviation and rail. As a deep specialist in all aspects of health safety and security, her practice includes occupational health and safety, security and anti-terrorism, biosecurity, cybersecurity, product safety, maritime safety, aviation safety, rail safety, construction safety, food safety, road safety and chain of responsibility. Alena has extensive experience advising government departments on complying with WHS legislation. Alena is particularly sought after to develop bespoke integrated environment, health, safety and security management systems in complex and hazardous industry settings. She has a particular interest in innovation, and has developed a niche in building technological solutions for safety and security management. Alena also assists clients with incident response and investigation processes as part of our 24/7 emergency response service and represents clients in responding to regulatory investigations, coronial inquests and defending regulatory prosecutions.  She is able to respond to serious incidents offshore, as she is OPITO BOSIET qualified having completed her helicopter underwater escape training.

Professor Malcolm Sim President AFOEM, Occ Physician

Malcolm is an occupational and environmental physician and epidemiologist who is Head of the Monash University Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health.  He leads an active research program, mainly focused on long term studies of health impacts on workers in ‘high risk’ industries.  Malcolm is also President of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and is a member of Worksafe Victoria’s OHS Advisory Committee.  He is a past Board Member of the International Commission on Occupational Health and is involved in many international collaborations.  During the COVID-19 pandemic he was appointed to the Infection Control Expert Group, the COVID-19 Healthcare Worker Taskforce in Victoria, an advisory role with the Building Industry COVID-19 taskforce and the infection prevention and control Panel of the National COVID-19 clinical evidence taskforce.  In 2019, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to occupational and environmental medicine.

Shah Abdul-Rahman HSE and Quality Leader - Programmed Group

Shah Abdul-Rahman has over 20 years of HSEQ leadership experience, across a diverse range of industries including: infrastructure services, mining, manufacturing, FMCG, labour hire, oil and gas and heavy engineering.

Dr Natalie Prow, Virologist

Dr Natalie Prow is a molecular virologist with a particular focus on the development of vaccine candidates for infectious diseases. Dr Prows’ research has involved the use of molecular biology, immunology, virology and preclinical models of disease to construct and evaluate novel vaccine candidates. Dr Prow has a current research interest on industry-focused translational outcomes and has partnered with biotech company, Sementis Ltd to fast-track vaccine candidates through to clinical trials. Dr Prow is currently involved in fast tracking Sementis’ COVID19 vaccine candidate through to Phase I clinical trials. Dr Prow is on the Executive Committee for the Australasian Virology Society and a member of the International Society for Vaccines and Australian Centre for Infectious Disease Research Centre.

Naomi Kemp, Chair, AIHS

is the Founder of Safe Expectations, a health and safety strategy business that helps to deliver restorative innovations. Naomi specialises in Enforceable Undertakings, a niche aspect of our safety laws having researched, administered and advised on them. Over her career, Naomi has led 22 organisations to successfully have an Enforceable Undertakings accepted for alleged WHS contraventions. She has also conducted research into the effectiveness of Enforceable Undertakings as an alternative enforcement tool and has assisted other safety regulators to implement EU programs within their jurisdictions.  She describes herself as a strong advocate for restorative justice in the workplace and jumps at the opportunity to help leaders during pivotal times to make safety happen.