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More than 3100 current and former Queensland Police Service employees have joined a Clive Palmer-funded class action over a COVID-era vaccination mandate, with a final appeal for others to join before Friday and an opt in or opt out deadline of September 18.
More than 3100 current and former Queensland Police Service employees have signed on to a Clive Palmer -funded class action against the service over a COVID-era vaccination mandate.
The law firm behind the action, Sibley Lawyers, is making a final appeal for others to join before the Friday deadline to register. Sibley Lawyers director Justin Sibley said there were potentially thousands more who could come forward. He said that at the time the vaccination mandate was introduced in September 2021, there were around 18,000 QPS employees. This means a significant number of people may potentially be eligible to participate in the class action.
Sibley said that given his firm's experience protecting frontline workers since mandates began, he is not surprised by the number of police and staff vaccinated under duress. He hoped everyone eligible will come forward, noting those who have not yet done so still have time before the deadline. The class action is being funded by Palmer through his mining company Mineralogy. The mandates were a contentious requirement during the pandemic, but health authorities declared them scientifically justified at the time.
Unlike many in the community, police officers were considered essential workers. This meant they were able to move more freely during the COVID lockdowns. Then-police commissioner Katarina Carroll introduced the mandate in September 2021, and it was to last five months. At the time, Carroll said the dynamic nature of policing means frontline officers interact with large volumes of people and move around to all corners of the state.
She said it is important the Queensland community has confidence and feels safe when interacting with their police. While respecting individual choice, she said the overwhelming obligation was to ensure safe workplaces and a safe community. Those who did not comply faced suspension without pay and potentially the loss of their jobs. Other government employees, such as teachers, faced similar mandates.
However, when the Palaszczuk government lifted those mandates in June 2022, the QPS directive remained in place because it was a commissioner's directive, not a government mandate. The QPS directive was revoked that December. In February 2024, Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin found the QPS directive was unlawful under the Human Rights Act.
Rather than ruling that workplace vaccination requirements themselves were inherently illegal, Martin found the directive unlawful because Carroll failed to properly consider human rights advice during the decision-making process. Sibley said the episode had turned police against each other and had damaged the QPS's strong cultural bond. He said many police and staff complied with the directions because the alternative was to be suspended without pay and then terminated.
He added that police and staff, many with years of experience and exemplary service records, had their pay cut off just before Christmas of 2021. Those who had held out briefly could see that the threat of suspension without pay was real. He also said that many employees who had legitimate medical advice not to be vaccinated were refused applications for exemptions. Sibley said the majority of class action participants nominated that they were in the vaccine coercion group.
This group includes officers and staff employed between September 7, 2021, and December 12, 2022, who received jabs after the relevant directions were issued but would not otherwise have received those doses. Almost 200 had nominated the vaccine refusal group, which included those who refused vaccinations altogether and were liable to disciplinary action. Sibley said others had nominated for the refused medical exemption group, whose applications for medical exemptions were refused.
Sibley said the class action is now at an important stage, with a September 18 deadline for people to either opt in or opt out of the class action. A QPS spokeswoman said the service would be unable to provide comment due to pending proceedings.
brisbanetimes 
smh:Thousands of Queensland cops join Palmer-backed vaccine lawsuit 
theage:Thousands of Queensland cops join Palmer-backed vaccine lawsuitThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
QPS Vaccine Mandate Class Action Police Employees COVID-19 Policy Clive Palmer Queensland Police Service COVID Vaccine Mandate Sibley Lawyers Clive Palmer Class Action Katarina Carroll
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