Employers Consultative Association on the fence in covid19 vaccination debate

Last week we received the Employers Consultative Association’s (ECA) long awaited contribution to the national vaccination debate which was published as a media release. One thing was clear – the ECA seems to be sitting on a very comfortable fence. Those of us who were hoping for elucidation from the association whose mandate is to provide employers with quality representation to ensure their strength and success for the country’s socio-economic wellbeing were left, well, unelucidated. By the time I had finished reading the release I was in the same position I was before I had read it. I am sure that most members of that organisation felt the same way.

I must be honest and state that I find the ongoing vacillation and stone kicking around the issue of vaccination to be both puzzling and illogical. Every day the national conversation from the neighbourhood spranger to company CEO is the same – when will businesses be able to open freely so we can start on the road to economic recovery? Yet when the conversation turns to vaccination, the position quickly changes to refusal and “I will wait and see.”

If everyone expects they can rely on herd immunity to avoid vaccination, then we will never reach herd immunity. And let us be clear – the WHO has stated it is unable to identify a definitive percentage of vaccinated persons that will constitute herd immunity but have warned factors such as a population being overweight, unhealthy, or aged will drive that percentage higher. So, the 75 per cent figure that is being bandied about could very well be higher for our population, considering our placement of 14 in the bottom 18 unhealthiest countries in the world by the Indigo Wellness Index.

The covid19 virus is going nowhere and data in places such as the US and UK show that while vaccination does not prevent infection, it drastically reduces the virus’s debilitating effects, most importantly, death, and allows infected persons to return to work faster with a significantly reduced chance of suffering from long lasting negative side effects. It continues to devastate the unvaccinated sectors of those societies and sends a clear message for us – our public health sector will continue to be strained and our economy stagnated if we leave the virus to circulate freely among our population.

On Monday, July 19, the parliament of France approved a law that made vaccinations mandatory for health workers and to gain access to a wide array of public venues. This follows in the footsteps of countries such as Italy, which have made vaccinations compulsory to health workers and Saudi Arabia who introduced the hardline “No jab, no job” policy in May for workers in the public, private and non-profit sectors.

That is why I find the ECA’s position incredulous. The crisis we are facing as a society is not whether you can mandate that an employee be vaccinated. The crisis is what measures can we put in place immediately to ensure people have jobs to return to. After all, a dead man receives no salary and pays no tax. And THIS is the real subject for debate, the crux of the issue that should be occupying our efforts and discussions and not the President’s decision regarding her security personnel, or whether you must roster a fast-food employee. Yes, an employee has a proprietary right to their job, but this is predicated on the fact that there must of course be a job to attach that right to. And this right comes with the dual responsibility on the employee’s part that he must show fealty to the company for which he works. Surely part of demonstrating that duty of fidelity to one’s employer is to ensure the employer is in the best position to continue its operations.

The covid19 virus has revealed many ills in our society – the breakdown in employer/employee communication, the inability of senior management to act proactively and decisively and perhaps most importantly, how we continue to focus on what we believe are our perceived rights. Yet it is clear to me that many in our society are completely ignoring the corresponding and arguably the far more important responsibilities that accompany those rights. Everyone is waiting for the economy to start serving them, but not enough of us are acknowledging our individual responsibility to facilitate that effort.

According to the US Census Bureau 2021 Household Pulse Survey, there is direct correlation between persons who have taken the covid19 vaccination and the population being healthier, health care costs lowering significantly, and increased economic activity. It is only a matter of time until policymakers at the state level declare vaccinations are mandatory, at least for the public sector, as we have been seeing in other countries. It is up to us as employees and employers – and those of us who advise and guide these sectors – to come together and work aggressively towards finding a pathway to this road to recovery.

For this reason, I completely agree and support the formal invitation from the trade union movement addressed to the TTMA and the local chambers of commerce for an urgent meeting to hammer out a clear position on the matter of vaccination.

Unlike the ECA, my view on this matter is clear and I give this advice to my clients… to mandate an employee to be vaccinated is not a variation of the existing terms of employment, rather it’s a workplace instruction that enforces an already existing implied term in the contract. So do your risk assessment and make the best decision in the interest of the company.