Rowley: Vaccinations voluntary, urges employers, employees to protect against covid19 spread

THE Prime Minister has urged business owners, employees and the public to exercise their rights and responsibility to protect the population against the covid19 virus.

He was speaking at a media conference on Saturday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

Dr Rowley addressed concerns of a vaccination policy in the workplace as the retail sector was gearing up to reopen on Monday.

Using himself as an example, Rowley said he followed all the health protocols but still managed to contract the covid19 virus.

He said vaccinations remained voluntary but people needed to realise that no one knew who the next person was going to be, as no one was immune to the virus.

“Different people may do things differently and I trust that they will operate within the law. There are different options available. At the end of the day, I want to make this point clear again, there is only one entity that has the responsibility of looking after everybody and that is the government.

“And the government is quite prepared at this time to rely on the population sensible response to something called a pandemic. It is a life and death situation."

While there has been a vibrant discussion about mandatory vaccinations in the workplace from all stakeholders, Rowley said the government will not force anything on the population at this time.

“The government, as we did in the beginning, we did not decide to force the population into complying with covid19. We had asked for masks and got a certain kind of response and then we had to go with mandatory. I have not seen a person without a mask for quite a while.”

“So, the people who are taking decisions, there are two things out there. One, is rights and the other is responsibility. There are people who would claim their rights, and there are people who would claim the responsibility of those who have claimed their rights. And all of it is being done so that all of us can survive.”

On Friday the trade unions and the Employers’ Consultative Association met to discuss workplace protocols.

The unions included the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN) represented by Joseph Remy, the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) represented by Ozzi Warwick, the National Trade Union Centre of TT (NATUC) represented by Michael Annisette and the ECA represented by chairman Keston Nancoo, vice chairman Farzan Ali and interim CEO Stephanie Fingal.

In a joint statement on Saturday, they said the meeting was held to find meaningful solutions for national economic recovery efforts and the safe reopening of businesses and safe return of workers.

They said there needed to be a practical approach which will enable the economy to rebuild quicker, stronger and better and added that a lack of legislation and regulation to specifically deal with vaccinations, left the doors open for misinformation and warned employers against forced vaccination policies.

“The absence of any specific enabling legislation or regulations, employers are being cautioned against imposing a requirement for mandatory vaccination on its workforce.

“At this time, this advice is consistent with approaches recommended by institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and is also principal to maintaining industrial peace and mitigating the risk of litigation.”

They said workplace vaccination should be addressed on the basis of promoting the safety, health and welfare of workers and the public in order for businesses to operate and remain open.

“Vaccination should remain voluntary based on education and moral suasion rather than coercion. More specifically, what is required is the implementation of industry and site-specific vaccination programmes based on the uniqueness of the employment environment and the associated level of risk. Ideally, all of this should be guided by a national vaccination policy, which parties agree has now become urgent.

“Furthermore, industry and site-specific vaccination policies should be developed, guided by a national policy on vaccination at the workplace and in consultation with trade unions where there are recognised majority unions (RMUs) and in consultation with workers where there are no RMUs.”

Several chamber heads on Saturday also maintained that people reserved the right to choose to be vaccinated or not, but also called for some type covid19 workplace policy to guide business owners and workers.

On Tuesday, Labour Minister Stephen McClashie said Cabinet has not made any decision on any workplace vaccination policy and the matter was still being discussed.

He said, “As you are aware, such a policy has many consequences and therefore we are looking at all the issues and their ramifications before the issuance of any guidelines.”