We all know COVID-19 resulted in a considerable number of new employer obligations that were covered under Victorian Occupational Health and Safety regulations.  Now we see some of those temporary orders and amendments being revoked and an important one that we want to highlight relates to employee vaccination information that you may be holding.

Collecting vaccination information

In a nutshell, the Victorian Government put temporary orders in place during the pandemic that placed the onus of workplace safety as it related to Covid on employers.  The regulations authorised employers to collect, record, hold and use COVID-19 vaccination information of employees, contractors, volunteers or students on placement (“specified persons”). 

The regulations were in place to allow employers to:

• determine reasonably practicable measures to control the risks to health and safety associated with COVID-19 at that workplace; and
• implement any reasonably practicable control measure to control the risks to health and safety associated with COVID-19 at that workplace.

Destruction of vaccination information

As mentioned, the regulations were temporary and were revoked as of 12 July 2023.  What this now means for employers that collected vaccination information is that you have until 11 August 2023 to destroy all COVID-19 vaccination records that were collected under the temporary requirements.

There are no specific directions on how destruction must be handled however you need to be sure that no private vaccination information is inadvertently disclosed to a third party.  You do need to check all avenues in which the vaccination information may have been disclosed including hardcopies of vaccination certificates or digital versions shared via email, or on phones.  All needs to be destroyed or deleted completely.

Following the 11 August deadline, information about a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status will be considered “health information” and will be protected by the Victorian Health Records Act and the Commonwealth’s Privacy Act 1988.  Businesses that fail to dispose of this health information may find themselves in breach of either or both Acts. 

Exceptions to the rule

Naturally, if your industry permits or requires COVID-19 vaccination records to be retained on or after 11 August 2023, you are exempt from this requirement. 

As always, the team at HR Staff n’ Stuff is here to help should you have any questions regarding this or any other HR concerns.