Job jab dilemma

Penelope Singleton* turned up for work at Qualcare Jamaica Limited in St Andrew last week knowing she had not complied with the new COVID-19 vaccination policy put in place by her employers.

The policy, which was outlined in a memo Qualcare circulated to Singleton and her colleagues on September 2 this year, indicated that they would have to get inoculated against the deadly respiratory disease.

“By October 1, all employees must submit to HR proof of at least the first vaccine,” said the memo seen by The Sunday Gleaner, which referred to the human resource division.

Employees who opted not to take the vaccine would be required to provide – at their expense – a negative PCR COVID test “every Monday morning to be allowed into the building”, the memo said.

Fast-food chain Mother’s, telecommunications provider Digicel, distribution company Cari-Med and media outfit CVM Television are among a growing number of private-sector companies that have implemented similar measures.

So, when an unvaccinated Singleton showed up for work without a PCR test result, the pharmaceutical sales and distribution company at which she has been employed for almost 10 years did not blink.

“I needed some clarification because based on how I interpret it, my employment is in the balance … . Me nuh really know where me stand, if me employed or not. So, I went to work,” she explained.

Singleton was barred from entering the company’s Hagley Park Road offices and informed that she was being sent on paid vacation “for several days”, she claimed during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week.

At the end of the paid vacation, she would be sent on unpaid vacation if her refusal to comply with the policy continued, she claimed, citing a letter she received from executives at Qualcare.

Company executives, she said, could not indicate how long she would remain on unpaid vacation.

Singleton, like thousands of Jamaican workers, is opposed to being compelled to take the COVID-19 jab, triggering a contentious issue for many employers.

“I want to take it on my own,” she insisted.

“When I feel like I want to, and not because my workplace is telling me it has to be done by the 30th [of September]. You don’t tell me when to put a drug in my body,” she said.

Antoinette Calderon*, another unvaccinated Qualcare employee, is adamant that she will not take the vaccine, even if that decision leaves her unemployed.

Contrary to the opinion of medical experts globally, Calderon clings to her belief that the vaccines “serve no purpose”.

“Because if you take the vaccine you can still contract the virus, you can still spread it, you still have to wear your mask and all those things,” she posited, despite the jabs being widely credited to drastically reduce the risk of severe disease and death.

“It is being pushed too much and people are dying from it. I don’t trust it and I don’t want it,” said the married mother of two adult children.

Their stance is a microcosm of the deep-seated vaccine hesitancy across sections of the society.

Approximately 9.9 per cent of the population was fully vaccinated against the virus up to September 30, according to the health ministry.

Jamaica has recorded close to 85,000 confirmed COVID cases since the start of the pandemic with more 1,900 deaths, with doctors, nurses and other front-line healthcare workers battling the virus among the victims.

Over 53,000 of those confirmed with the virus locally since March 2020 have recovered so far.

Oppose mandatory vaccination

A recent RJRGLEANER opinion poll found that 70 per cent of Jamaicans are opposed to the introduction of mandatory vaccination. The remaining 30 per cent are in favour of the move, according to the survey conducted by the Don Anderson-led Market Research Services.

Presenting four PCR tests every month is out of the question for both women, who say they each earn less than $100,000 monthly.

“We don’t get paid enough to do the PCR test … and they (employers) know this,” said Singleton.

Up to May 18 this year, the cost of a PCR test ranged from $15,000 to $27,000, according to a survey of several private facilities conducted by the Consumer Affairs Commission. They are done free of cost at public health facilities on the recommendation of a doctor.

Marlene Kennedy, human resource director at Qualcare Jamaica, did not respond to questions sent via email on Monday about the decision to implement the vaccination policy and its likely impact on staff.

An employee at the Cari-Med Group claimed, during an interview, that he is aware of colleagues who have been placed on paid and unpaid vacation leave for not complying with the policy, which was set to take effect on Monday.

Others have opted to resign, said the employee, who did not want to be named.

“If it is a case where you don’t have any vacation days, then you will be on unpaid vacation until you comply,” said the employee, who has not taken the vaccine for “personal reasons”.

“It’s not the case that the company implements a policy that is the problem, it is how you go about implementing the policy,” said the Cari-Med employee, disclosing that the policy may be challenged in court.

Chairman of the Cari-Med Group, Dr Glen Christian, confirmed that the policy requiring employees to be vaccinated or present a negative PCR test result every 14 days “has been enforced and is in effect.

“The policy speaks for what the company stands for,” said Christian.

He declined comment on whether any worker has been sent on paid or unpaid vacation.

There is nothing in Jamaica’s labour laws that allows an employer to compel workers to take vacation leave, says John Levy, general secretary of the Union of Clerical, Supervisory and Administrative Employees (UCASE).

Levy, who is fully vaccinated, told The Sunday Gleaner that he understands the situation facing employers seeking to implement policies that will protect their operations from the threat posed by the explosion of COVID cases locally in recent weeks.

But he insisted that vacation leave – paid or unpaid – is not something that management can force on workers “when they feel like”.

“There is no provision in the labour code for that,” Levy said. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is a breach of the labour code, … but it would have breached the spirit and intent of the code.”

The UCASE general secretary suggested that workers impacted by the policies take their case to the Ministry of Labour, describing the reported actions of some employers as a “suspension”.

The implementation of new COVID-19 policies across the private sector has not escaped the attention of the Karl Samuda-led Ministry of Labour.

“ ... We can’t make any determination on it until we are guided by law, and there is no provision at the moment that enables a company to implement a mandatory requirement that people take the vaccine,” Samuda told The Sunday Gleaner Friday night.

Informed of claims that workers are being forced on vacation until they comply with these COVID policies, Samuda said:”I don’t know under what provision that action takes place”.

Digicel’s COVID policy is set to take effect next Friday, and already, the company says more than 70 per cent of its employees have been inoculated.

“This includes 100 per cent of our senior management,” said Elon Parkinson, the telecoms company’s public relations and communications manager.

Noting that there is still time for employees to get vaccinated, he said the company is confident that more will opt to take the jab.

“With the essential nature of the services we provide to our customers and our communities, now more important than ever, we take the safety of all our employees and customers extremely seriously,” he said, pointing to one of the overriding reasons for the policy.

Private sector leaders’ declaration

The controversy surrounding the new COVID-19 policies comes amid a declaration by private sector leaders that the time for them to establish policies requiring employees to get vaccinated is “now”.

“A vaccination policy not only saves lives, it reduces disruption in businesses and sustains productivity,” the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) and the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) said in a joint statement on October 6.

The declaration could increase pressure on the Andrew Holness-led administration, which has said that it will not impose mandatory vaccination at this time, though state agencies like the army and the police force have imposed vaccine mandates.

Already, the PSOJ, JCC and the JMEA, with help from the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, have developed a road map they say employers can use to create their own COVID policies.

The five-page document, titled Workplace Measures and Protocols, cited the duty of care imposed on employers by law to put reasonable and practical measures in place to protect staff, customers and the public from the risk of injury or harm.

The protocol suggests that COVID policies crafted by employers should start with a risk assessment of the workspace.

The next phase, it said, is to design a policy that provides the best level of protection against transmission. “If the policy requires the use of any equipment or the need to be vaccinated, the employer must provide such equipment and/or arrange vaccinations at his expense and on his time.”

Stressing that the measures should be discussed in detail with each employee, the protocol said where an employee refuses to comply with any aspect of the policy, the employer should seek to determine if such refusal “creates a real and significant, as opposed to hypothetical, risk to others”.

Where consultations fail to resolve the issues to the mutual satisfaction of both sides, the document said employers “may legally move to dismiss the employee”.

“In the current context, dismissal is very much a last resort and only to be contemplated after all reasonable alternatives have been explored.”

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com