Following Coles' annual general meeting today, a number of media reports have suggested that during the meeting Coles announced changes to its policies on COVID vaccinations for team members.
This is completely incorrect, and Coles confirms that the measures we shared with our team members and announced publicly on 21 October 2021 have not changed in any way.
Specifically:
- Coles requires team members to be vaccinated as a condition of working at any of our stores, distribution centres and other sites in New South Wales, the ACT and Victoria, unless they have a valid exemption
- Coles team members in NSW and the ACT must have received at least one vaccination by 5 November and have received a second dose by 17 December
- In Victoria, NT and WA, team members are required to be vaccinated in line with the dates set out in public health orders
- In each state where Coles team members are required to vaccinate as a condition of work, either as a result of government health orders or as part of Coles' updated COVID safety measures, Coles intends to maintain this requirement as an ongoing policy
- Coles will continue to work with health authorities and team members to strongly encourage the uptake of vaccination in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. We will continue to review our policies on team member vaccination on a state-by-state basis, in line with changes in the risk of transmission.
