Statement on vaccination compliance from Digital Island

06 December 2021

Kia ora,

We would like to inform you about our Health and Safety Risk Assessment which identified where there is a higher risk of Covid-19 infection and transmission for our people in certain roles within our business.

We have 70 people working across a diverse range of roles and environments and our risk assessment has shown that higher risk exists in three areas:

• roles that have direct engagement with sectors that are already covered by the Government’s Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order (the Order) 2021
• essential services teams delivering critical services for NZ (who cannot work remotely)

To reduce the risks of Covid-19 in these areas as much as possible we have recently completed a consultation with our people about requiring vaccinations for these roles. We have now confirmed our decision to require vaccinations for specific roles and are currently working with impacted individuals and teams.

Our customers, suppliers and partners have also been identified as being part of the same risk assessment consultation process to meet our health and safety obligations and we are now working through managing communication and requirements with them.

In response to requests for feedback and information about vaccination compliance of our people, Digital Island can confirm that:

• For our customers who fall under the Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order (the Order) 2021, Digital Island confirms that all of our employees and suppliers visiting your sites will be fully vaccinated to enable us to provide contracted services in accordance with the Order and the timeframes set out in the Order (i.e., first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 15 November 2021, and second dose by 1 January 2022).
• For those customers who do not fall under the Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order but have requested that any Digital Island employees and suppliers entering their premises must be vaccinated, then Digital Island would follow this request (providing it was based on reasonable grounds where there is a high risk of exposure and transmission in these roles). If these Digital Island employees are not currently captured in the higher risk employee group mentioned above, as determined by our own Covid-19 Health and Safety Risk Assessment, then we would work with these employees individually to resource appropriately and ensure compliance so only vaccinated employees and suppliers will visit your sites.

We are currently implementing a system to collect the vaccination status of our people who have been identified as ‘Category One – high risk’ as part of our Health and Safety Risk Assessment outlined above. This information will be validated through the domestic “My Vaccine Pass”.

As always, we take the privacy of our people, suppliers, and partners seriously. The vaccination status of individuals and any other personal or health information that Digital Island receives as part of this process will be stored securely and managed in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. We will ensure that our staff have proof of vaccination as required when visiting your sites.

In addition, we ask that all customers visiting our sites follow Government Covid-19 safety protocols and mandates aligned with the relevant Covid-19 Protection Framework Alert Level applicable at the time, such as maintaining social distancing, the use of masks indoors, contact tracing and other hygiene measures such as staying home if you are unwell.

Please remember that as our Health and Safety Risk Assessment is an ongoing process, we will continue to review and potentially evolve our approach, to meet Government guidelines and operational best practice.

Thank for your understanding and support as we work to ensure that we can continue to deliver essential connectivity services to Aotearoa.

We value working in partnership with you and look forward to continuing to do so.

Ngā mihi,

Leon Sheehan
Chief Executive Officer
Digital Island