Hurunui Council confident in systems should outbreak occur
From local democracy reporter Adam Burns:
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The Hurunui District Council has introduced a vaccine mandate for its facilities, despite it not recording vaccination details for its 187 employees and volunteers.
However, the council said its employees would be required to show their My Vaccine Pass, alongside members of the public, to access council facilities.
The council was previously not enforcing vaccine requirements at its facilities, nor for its 187 employees, contractors and volunteers, but it had been in talks with employees over an internal vaccination policy since last month.
The country's shift into the red setting of the Covid-19 Traffic Light System framework forced the hand of council bosses last week.
“It’s about everyone’s protection, we need to keep our staff healthy so they can help keep the community healthy," chief executive Hamish Dobbie said.
Dobbie said council had responded to ensure essential services could continue to be delivered "should widespread community transmission become an issue".
“Our teams will see changes within their own operations, but as far as the people of Hurunui are concerned, things will carry on as normal.”
When asked if any employees and contractors had been affected by the restrictions, Dobbie said most employees were required to spend more time working remotely.
"In addition to the requirement for vaccine passports, essential service teams have implemented their planned split into non-contact bubbles, the main office has been reconfigured to decrease occupation and maximise distancing.
"We continue to monitor the information provided about community transmission to ascertain whether there are other steps that we can take to further minimise the impact of Omicron on our staff and the services we deliver."
It was revealed last week the Christchurch City Council had let go of 13 staff due to their vaccination status.
Kalle
"Sports and travelling run in the family, and that's kind of what's led me to come to New Zealand."
"I grew up in a small town in Finland. My dad was involved with sports all his life, he was a shot putter, discus thrower, powerlifter, we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. He never mentioned much of the rugby days. He just said he broke both of his shin bones playing rugby, so he said, ‘never play the sport, It's crazy.’
I started playing when I was 18. I played my first cap for the Finnish national team in 2014, we won the Finnish championship with my club. Rugby is not a big thing in Finland.
I moved here to play rugby in 2017. The club that wanted me to come over was Methven Rugby Club. They got me here and they were like, ‘what do you do for work? I’d just finished chef school in Finland. ‘We'll get you a job at Mount Hutt as a chef, you can do that while you play rugby with us.’ I said, ‘Perfect. Yeah, I'm in’.
I've always loved food. My mum was an amazing cook, and still is. When I was studying tourism I worked in some hotels in Finland, and I saw how the chef's worked. I just loved the kitchen vibe and I was like, Yeah, that’d be something I'd love to do.
I've had more of a culinary journey In New Zealand than in Finland. I started at Mount Hutt, after that I worked at The Dubliner in Methven. I worked as a senior pizza chef at Sal’s for maybe six months then worked as chef de partie at Cellar Door. At Eliza's Manor, I worked myself up to a junior sous chef. Then the opportunity came to work my first head chef job at Moon Under Water.
We're privileged to have a busy atmosphere, we can try new things and get a bit creative. There are no TV’s, just come here with your family or with your mates, play board games, to socialise.
I really want to drive the local food and ingredients through the menu. We don't mind spending more for quality ingredients as long as it's supporting New Zealand businesses. We just love to use local. And it's pub food, but I feel like it's elevated.
I play club rugby here for the Christchurch Football Club, the oldest club in New Zealand and I still play regularly for the Finnish national team, whenever they can fly me over to play."
- Kalle
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