What can employers do to help frontline staff with ‘vaccination policing’?

As businesses in New South Wales open up to the fully vaccinated, employers share a common concern: the potential rise in conflict and repercussions of being on the frontline of ‘policing’ people’s vaccination status.

Grant*, owner of a popular cafe in Sydney’s inner west, has chosen to keep inside dining closed for now, offering takeaway-only for fear of backlash.

“I’m worried for the safety of my staff having to tell people they can’t come in for a cup of coffee,” he tells Kochie’s Business Builders.

It’s a valid concern. When restrictions eased in NSW on Monday, October 11, Cafe Dzajko, also in Sydney’s inner west, made headlines after an anti-vaxxer confronted a barista working alone, filming her and abusing her for “walking implicitly into segregation”.