John Haige
[FYI request #18777 email]

25 March 2022

Tēnā koe John Haige

On  5 March 2022,  you emailed the Ministry of Social Development (the
Ministry) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982  (the Act), the
following information:
•  The number of staff who have had employment terminated due to the
staff member refusing vaccination.
•  If  you cannot provide the amount of staff terminated specifically for
this reason can you provide the amount of staff who handed in their
notice within a month of MSD  requiring staff to be vaccinated and 2
weeks before this vaccination was mandatory?
The Ministry has proceeded to final decisions in the case of 220 of our staff,
out of our 9400 staff, and not all are notices of termination of employment.
Each person’s situation is different, and the decisions reached in each case
reflect their circumstances. I am not able to go into further details currently
as the Ministry is working through matters with individual staff members.
The health and wellbeing of our staff and clients is the Ministry’s top priority,
and these are not decisions that have been made lightly. The Ministry’s policy
is based on a health and safety risk assessment under the Health and Safety
at Work Act 2015. The Ministry continues to review official Ministry of Health
advice in considering our health and safety risk assessment around COVID-
19.
The other details which you have requested are refused  under section
9(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of Ministry staff. The need to protect
the privacy of these individuals outweighs any public interest in this
information.

If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to seek an
investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make
a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui

Magnus O’Neill
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
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