Recently, more and more workplaces have been giving employees ultimatums to either get vaccinated or present a negative covid test weekly. But some workers have decided to simply quit.So what does this mean for employee retention? Joining me now to discuss, we have President of the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, Wayne Chen.
We have to make the hard choices
-Wayne Chen
President of the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, Wayne Chen, said while COVID-19 vaccinations should not be made mandatory, certain hard choices must be made to ensure businesses and the country at large remain competitive.
His comments come against the background of several private sector companies, including Digicel, CVM and National Commercial Bank, issuing vaccine mandates to staff.
Chen said based on his reports, several employees in different sectors have been quietly acceding to such instructions given the uncertainties of the pandemic, but he expects more pushback as the economy rebounds.
He argued that while the Government has to be cautious with the issue, employers do not have that luxury, with many taking significant losses due to the pandemic and others operating now with virtually no revenue.
While he does not support mandates, Chen said employers should still be entitled to ask everyone who operates within their space- whether it be employees, clients or other stakeholders, to be vaccinated.
“I don’t think that it should be legally mandated, it should be left to the discussion and negotiation of individual employees,” he said before countering that “individual rights sometimes have to yield to the collective good and community good.”
Chen reasoned that given the fact that worldwide more than half the world’s population has already received a single jab, large companies should be afforded the same right just as an employer who asks their helper/gardner/parent or child caregiver, to be protected before entering their household, or a small or medium sized business moving to ensure a safe workspace for staff and customers.
He also said the country risks getting left behind by the rest of the world if it continues to struggle to increase its vaccination rate, pointing to the tourism industry in particular which will have to adapt to continue attracting visitors.
He reasoned that at least eight Caribbean destinations have started advertising their resorts and their industry as having staff being fully vaccinated, adding that large companies transporting people into Jamaica have also been telling destinations in the region to make sure staff is fully vaccinated because their customers are asking for that.
“Whatever happens in the hospitality sector, over time that will affect Jamaica’s interaction with the rest of the world,” he said
Jamaica’s vaccination rate remains among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere, even as it hit the one million mark of doses administered over the weekend.
Chen said the discussions should now be focused on what other methods are needed to get more people inoculated.
“There will be exceptions and people who don’t want to take the vaccines, as well as people who prefer to go through the inconvenience and cost of providing a regular test…but we have to be realistic and make the hard choices”.
Meanwhile Chen said he expects the fallout in the unemployment numbers during the pandemic to rebound as the economy recovers and reopens. He’s anticipating improvements in tourism, construction and distribution to complement improved figures recorded for the Business Process Outsourcing sector.
