EXEMPTIONS AND EXCEPTIONS TO THE VAX AND CAN YOU GET ONE?

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PM Stalinda - bringing NZ employers and employees down

"An exemption" to mandatory vaccination?  Or "an exception"? What's the difference? Or are they one and the same thing?

For New Zealanders forced to accept P M Stalinda Ardern's cancellation of income because they refuse to accept her experimental injection these are not academic questions.

The "exemption" is granted to an employee by a health practitioner. The "exception" is granted to an employer by the Minister for Covid Response, Head Prefect Hipkins.

But then the Ministry of Health (more accurately the Ministry of Sick) applies a second meaning to the word "exception" when it states that "there are very few "exceptions" to vaccination available to people in the health sector." We take it that's the usual meaning of "exception", and not as opposed to "exemption". 

• View a map of the Health Worker Vaccination Order exceptions and exemptions process (PDF, 156 KB)

In some situations health and disability, education and corrections workers may be able to get an "exemption" from vaccination. The exemption process comes into force on 6 November 2021 for corrections workers, and 15 November 2021 for health and disability workers and education workers.

You may be exempted from the vax by a health practitioner who provides you with a written assessment. But if you happen to be a health practitioner you can't exempt yourself.

Bear in mind that "a health practitioner" is "a person who is, or is deemed to be, registered with an authority as a practitioner of a particular health profession”. So on the face of it, you could get an exemption to the vax from your chiropodist. Or optician or audiologist (on the face of it, on the terms of Ardern's Abortion Law Act 2020 they can perform abortions, too). 

And now for "exceptions" as opposed to "exemptions". Business owners or operators (PCBUs) may apply to the Minister for COVID-19 Response (Head Prefect Hipkins) to allow an employee to continue to work unvaxxed in order to "prevent significant disruption to essential health services." You'll find the criteria that Hipkins "must consider when deciding whether to grant an exemption in: 

• COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021

It's also Hipkins who'll decide whether your work is "necessary" and how "disruptive" it would be if your work's not done. So you need to show how disruptive your absence would be, how essential your service is, and the risk to the public if you stop providing that service.

Then there's a raft of conditions applied which would seem to be designed to put your PCBU right off doing anything to get you an "exception": 

what efforts have been made to make the worker aware of the vaccination requirement, including the deadline for getting vaccinated

if the employer/PCBU offered the worker the opportunity to receive the vaccine during their usual working hours

what the reason is the worker has decided not to be vaccinated at this time (including any identified barriers to the worker being vaccinated)

if the worker has been briefed on the vaccine by a suitably qualified health practitioner

whether the individual worker cannot be replaced with another existing worker, by another function, or by training of other or new staff in the short term

if the employer/PCBU can operate without the role, even while recruitment or retraining is underway (noting any qualifications required and how long training will take)

how necessary the work activities are, including whether they could reasonably be delayed to facilitate vaccination of the worker needed to perform the role.

The Minister may exempt the worker for a specified period.

No class or group exceptions will be considered. However, if appropriate, a PCBU may seek exceptions for more than one worker at a time. In this situation, the PCBU should outline the cumulative effect of that group not being vaccinated.https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-response-planning/covid-19-mandatory-vaccinations/covid-19-exemptions-and-exceptions-mandatory-vaccination

Then there's a whole lot of blather which states the obvious in regard to your application and it being declined. The MoH tells you where to go for more information. However we'd much rather send you to Voices for Freedom: https://voicesforfreedom.co.nz/

On the Vigil of All Saints, the most appropriate prayer for people facing Ardern's No Jab, No Job would have to be the Litany of the Saints - but you'd need to set aside a good half-hour to pray it.

 "All ye holy Saints of God, intercede for us."

Fra Angelico