Coronavirus Australia: Spotlight, Anaconda and Mountain Designs staff punished if they don’t get jab

Thousands of staff at one of Australia’s biggest retail groups could miss out on end-of-year incentives if they refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Retail giant Spotlight Group has informed staff via internal email they won’t receive their Christmas bonus if they don’t show proof of vaccination to their manager.  

The decision impacts on staff at hundreds of Spotlight, Anaconda, Harris Scarfe and Mountain Designs stores across Australia.

The staff memo was leaked to 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham, who described the decision as a step too far as he read out the email on his show on Monday morning.

‘For those of you who are otherwise eligible for festive bonus this year, in order to both ensure that you now qualify and that it is processed early, please provide your manager with confirmation of your vaccination status,’ the email states.

NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham agreed Spotlight had gone too far and slammed the decision as ‘a bit of a scrooge act’.

‘They’re going a bridge too far to actually punish people and take money off them,’ he told Fordham.

‘Companies have every right to offer incentives and we all want to get to herd immunity to meet those Doherty targets of vaccination and offering incentives for vaccination is a positive thing in that respect.

‘But jeez, it would create a lot of division and nastiness internally to take the Christmas bonus off other workers who’ve done the same amount of work and would otherwise be deserving.’

Mr Latham added a lot of Australians are still waiting to book in for their preferred jab while others want to see more evidence the vaccine is safe.

‘We need to have more compassion for people who don’t want to have to make the choice of rushing to get a medical procedure they don’t necessarily want,’ he added. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Spotlight Group for comment.

The Australian operated and privately owned retail giant opened its first Spotlight store in Melbourne in 1976.

SPC recently became the first Australian company to demand staff to be vaccinated.

All of 450 on-site employees at at the company’s factory in Shepparton in regional Victoria have until September 15 to schedule their first dose while all staff and contractors must be fully vaccinated by the end of November.

As of Monday morning, 62.1 per cent of Australians aged over 16 are not double-vaccinated.