Labour minister: Report coming soon on workforce vaccinations

LABOUR Minister Stephen Mc Clashie expects to have a tripartite recommendation on a way forward towards policies to govern workplace vaccination, he told Newsday on Tuesday.

Earlier, a fast-food restaurant chain (Mario's Pizzeria) in a statement said it would ask unvaccinated staff to stay home for the present, although restaurants are set to reopen next Monday while Trinidad and Tobago remains in the grip of the covid19 pandemic.

Later, Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, in a statement, chided the Government for allegedly lacking a policy on unvaccinated staff in the workplace, amid social media reports of the food chain wanting its employees to be vaccinated in order to be prioritised for work.

"These reports have sparked a much larger debate, very urgent issue about the state of employer/employee relations as we seek to reopen the economy," Indarsingh said.

"On one hand, the Opposition notes that employers must seek their interest, and protect their employees, customers, and investments from the socially and commercially disruptive nature of the virus."

On the other hand, he said, "We also acknowledge that Section 4 of the Constitution defends the individual citizen’s right to choose, which would extend to the choice of being vaccinated or not." He said people could opt not to be vaccinated after consulting their doctors and determining the impact of accepting a vaccine.

McClashie told Newsday, "The Industrial Relations Advisory Committee (IRAC) was tasked with the job to identify guidelines and/or policy positions that we could take. IRAC is made up of private, government and trade union representatives."

They were in the final stages of creating regulation/policy considerations and he expected to get them by the end of the week,he said, so he did not know what the recommendation would be. Once the document was received, "We will certainly have a discussion around it and it will be laid in Cabinet for approval."

McClashie did not know as yet whether it would be a regulation or a policy that advised on best practice.

But, he said, "Globally we have had this problem in almost every society. and none of these countries have yet come up with a policy position on vaccines, not even the ILO (International Labour Organisation.)

"So it's not an easy set of decisions to make, given the ramifications, both in terms of public health and in terms of livelihoods, that would have."

He said it was not a knee-jerk decision, " but we have to think it through carefully.

"So on that backdrop, I hope within a week or two we may be able to actually put out to the public the Government's position on it."