Vax-or-test policies creating hardship for workers

The financial hardships are beginning to set in for Antoinette Calderon*, the Qualcare Jamaica Limited employee who has been on unpaid vacation leave for refusing to comply with the COVID-19 policy implemented by her employers two months ago.

It could also be a bleak Christmas for her colleague, Arianna Rodriguez*.

Both women claim that they have not collected a salary from the pharmaceutical sales and distribution company since October when they defied the policy, which requires that employees of Qualcare either take an approved COVID-19 vaccine or present a negative PCR test result every two weeks, at their expense.

Qualcare has not responded to questions submitted by The Sunday Gleaner.

Jamaica’s Supreme Court signalled on Friday that a similar policy implemented by local pharmaceutical giant, Cari-Med Group Limited, does not, in the main, infringe on the constitutional rights of its workers.

The decision in the Cari-Med case is a significant win for Jamaican employers who have faced pushback from workers and their unions over the increasing use of similar policies, legal experts have opined.

The court, however, left in place a claim by the Cari-Med workers that the policy amounted to a breach of their employment contracts.

Calderon, a married mother of two adult children, told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday that “there are things I need to do, but I don’t have the money to do them”.

With the reduced cash inflow, Calderon said she simply cannot meet her financial obligations, do basic things or pay the bills.

“It’s getting harder ... financial-wise,” she said.

Rodriguez’s situation is even more dismal. Her husband is unemployed and her two children can barely assist.

“Financially, like to buy food and dem something deh, it’s very hard,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Hard, hard, hard.”

But, notwithstanding their hardships, both women insist that they will not take the vaccine and that they cannot afford the costs of the PCR tests.

“No, take what? Me no wah be no lamb to no slaughter,” said Calderon, signalling deep opposition to the jab, widely credited for saving lives and reducing hospitalisations arising from the dreaded virus.

“Once I don’t feel good to take it, I’m not going to take it,” Rodriguez insisted.

The cost of a PCR test ranged from $15,000 to $27,000, according to a recent survey of several private facilities conducted by the Consumer Affairs Commission.

However, it is done free of cost at public health facilities, on the recommendation of a doctor.

Their defiance is a microcosm of the deep-rooted vaccine hesitancy in the wider population, even as a growing number of private sector companies have moved to implement similar COVID-19 policies.

A recent RJRGLEANER-commissioned opinion poll found that 70 per cent of Jamaicans are opposed to the introduction of mandatory COVID-19 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.

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Supreme Court, in a decision handed down on Friday, said there was no evidence that the constitutional rights of the Cari-Med workers had been breached and that adequate remedies for breach of contracts are available and should be pursued.

The ruling, one attorney suggested, should provide a fillip for employers who have long asserted that they have a duty, in law, to provide a safe environment for employees and others who visit their places of business.

Rather than doling out long-term contracts, the attorney suggested that companies develop and implement employee manuals that give them greater flexibility.

“Some companies have policies that give them flexibility and some don’t. And the ones who don’t, frankly speaking, in my opinion, will be in breach of contract,” said the attorney, who did not want to be named.

Gavin Goffe, one of the attorneys who represented Cari-Med, said the ruling indicates that there is a balancing act that employers are required to undertake.

“The message that I’m taking away from the judgment is that it’s not simply the rights of those who wish not to be vaccinated which should be considered,” Goffe said.

“This is a pandemic which we are all in and we are all trying to protect ourselves and be responsible citizens, recognising that everyone else has rights and responsibilities.”

Jerome Spencer and Yakum Fitz-Henley, two of the attorneys who represented the Cari-Med workers, declined to comment yesterday.

*Names changed to protect identities.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com