Wagga meat workers will be near the front of the queue when the coronavirus vaccine rollout begins next month.
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The first to be offered access to the vaccine under Phase 1a includes quarantine and border workers, frontline health workers, aged care and disability staff plus residents.
The much larger Phase 1b includes anyone over 70, other healthcare workers, those with an underlying condition and high-risk workers like emergency services personnel and meat processing workers.
It also includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are over 55.
Particularly in Victoria during its second wave, Australian meat processors found themselves at the frontline of exposure and infection, with multiple outbreaks in abattoirs.
With this in mind, John Langbridge, general manager of Teys corporate and industry affairs, said they were pleased to hear their workers were considered a priority.
Employees at the Wagga plant will be among those offered the vaccine in the first rounds.
"It gives us a lot more certainty," he said.
"There has been a lot of touching wood and holding our breaths, so this makes us feel a lot more confident in the future."
Mr Langbridge said they are still waiting on more information about how exactly the rollout will work, but there's one factor that has already been determined.
"We will always be voluntary. We will never mandate it," he said.
"We will encourage people to vaccinate because it is good for them, for their families and the continuity of work.
"We are fairly confident that without too much trouble, we will get enough of our workers interested that it would be incapable of spreading in the workplace."
One measure Teys took was to offer the flu vaccine to staff. This, Mr Langbridge added, alongside other measures such as rigorous screenings and rules and clear policies has helped keep the plants functioning.
"Interestingly, the trust and the relationship between the workers and us has improved even more because we have been transparent through the whole process," he said.