The Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) has announced it has joined forces with the Victorian Government in calling for employers to vaccinate their staff against this year’s strain of influenza.

VECCI’s Chief Executive, Mark Stone, said that the move would improve productivity as well as protecting the broader community against this year’s flu outbreak.

“Workers with the flu take an average of two weeks to recover and, because they can be contagious before any symptoms show, it is easily to spread to others,” Mr Stone said.

Mr Davis said that so far this year, up until today, there had been 2540 cases of flu across Australia compared with 1850 last year.

“In Victoria, there had been 368 cases so far this year compared with 244 for the same period last year,” Mr Davis said.

“Every year thousands of people contract the flu and this has a huge impact not only on themselves but on their family, friends, colleagues and ultimately their workplace.

“There is no room for complacency, as the number of people with flu this year in other states has already increased significantly and our peak of flu season is still to come.

More information on workplace immunisation can be found here