AIC backs off PCR tests, docking salaries for now

AIC Jamaica, one of two companies hauled before the courts over their mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, has admitted that it got legal advice to not dock salaries or require aggrieved workers pay for tests out of pocket.

And it says it will not pursue those measures in the future.

That was the assertion from Wayne Chen, a director of the investment company, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court last Wednesday that did not say whether the policy would be withdrawn.

The AIC workers are suing for alleged contract violations only, while five employees of pharmaceutical company, Cari-Med, are suing the company for alleged contractual and constitutional rights breaches.

The workers said they are not vaccinated but have varying reasons for not taking the COVID-19 jab “at this time”.

Chen explained that when vaccines became more available in May and June, AIC Jamaica “strongly encouraged” workers to take the jab in keeping with medical advice.

Of the 12 employees making up the company’s maintenance and ancillary staff, four, who have since taken the company to court, did not take the vaccine.

Chen said given the refusal, Shamena Khan, AIC Jamaica’s managing director, issued a directive that unvaccinated workers would be required to produce weekly negative COVID-19 tests at their own expense before being allowed to work and that deductions would come from salaries for missed days.

A further directive was issued on September 27 mandating that all employees were to be vaccinated.

But Chen said some aspects of the directive were not implemented because of the legal advice from the company’s attorney, Conrad George, of Hart Muirhead Fatta.

“AIC has not required (and will not require) any employee to produce negative COVID-19 tests, nor has any employee’s pay been docked for failing to provide a negative test (and no docking of pay will take place for such a reason,” said Chen, who is the brother of Jamaican billionaire, Michael Lee-Chin – two of three directors of AIC Jamaica.

Lee-Chin is chairman of the NCB Financial Group, the region’s largest banking outfit.

NCB has been battling concerns with its staff union over a similar vaccine-or-test policy that was due to take effect on November 1.

Chairman of the NCB Staff Association, Paul Stewart, said while the policy has not been withdrawn, the requirements such as test results for unvaccinated staff were not imposed on Monday, November 1. He said the group is awaiting a response from the labour ministry, where it filed a dispute against NCB.

AIC Jamaica operates a St Andrew-based commercial complex known as the NCB Towers, where several government and private businesses are based. AIC is responsible for maintenance and janitorial services.

In their affidavits filed last month, the AIC workers claimed that they were reportedly barred from entering the workplace from September 23-26.

Since then, the workers said they have now been assigned tasks that were never part of their job description, including the removal of garbage from outside the building, sweeping the car park, and cleaning the stairs outside the building.

The claimants’ original duties involved repairs and assessment of infrastructure and facilities.

But Chen has countered that the new tasks are within the workers’ job functions and were narrowed to reduce interaction with other employees, tenants, and the public.

According to Chen, AIC has a legal duty to provide a safe environment for its employees and the “refusal to be vaccinated for ‘personal reasons’ is, I believe, objectively reasonable”.

The Cari-Med workers, including a pregnant woman, say they have tendered various reasons for the delay in taking the vaccine but they have not been granted exemption.

The pregnant claimant, in her affidavit, alleged that she had informed Kirk-FP, a Cari-Med subsidiary, that she had had a negative reaction to the H1N1 and H3N2 vaccines and was advised by her doctor to avoid COVID-19 immunisation for her safety and that of her unborn child.

The workers, who claimed they were left feeling ashamed when they were barred from the company, besides the injunction order, also want the court to restrain Cari-Med from modifying their employment contracts by implementing the policy.

A Supreme Court judge last Wednesday set full one-day hearings for this month for the applications for injunctions, a faster pace than usual that is seen as the court acknowledging the significance of the cases and their implications for the country’s industrial climate.

The Cari-Med matter will be heard on November 12, while AIC Jamaica’s will be argued on November 19.

The two cases were filed separately on October 19.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com