Watson Duke, president of the National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC) is calling on employers, to stop using the Government’s “Vaccinate to Operate,” policy to violate the human rights of workers.
Duke made the call during an interview with Guardian Media, in which he was responding to Prestige Holdings’ “KFC workers must be vaccinated to return to work stance.”
Duke who also heads the Public Services Association (PSA), said while NATUC and the PSA understood the trend of the world in the use of vaccines to prevent death and slow the spread of COVID-19, it also understood the right of all human beings to accept or reject anything that goes into their body.
Responding to Guardian Media’s question on the advice he would give to the membership of the PSA, should they face a similar challenge, Duke related, “If they are so threatened or compelled by the employer take the COVID-19 vaccine…any one of those vaccines, please report it to the PSA immediately. We are going to deal with it in the court of law.”
Duke swore, “The PSA stands ready and willing to defend, any single worker in this country and so does NATUC. We stand ready and willing to defend any worker in this country who is forced out of their job or denied entrance into a job because they have not been vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, attorney-at-law, Brian Baig who agreed with Duke, told lawyers and trade unions, “get ready to defend workers.”
Baig said this was not a fight against Government’s call to the population to be vaccinated, rather it was a matter of ensuring, people’s basic human rights were not being infringed upon.
He said, whatever the reason for an employee or any person is, for not wanting to take the vaccine that was his or her right.
“Taking the vaccine should be left up to them, it should not be made mandatory. Because these persons, you cannot tell as to whether, will they have any reactions to the vaccines, if they may have any health issues etc.”
He said while vaccines were always recommended, no one should be forced to take a vaccine and this would be very unfair of any employer to attempt to do so.
Baig said the guidelines about vaccination in the workplace, was made clear by the president of the Industrial Court Deborah Thomas-Felix who said in early June, an employer could not alter its terms and conditions to make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for employees.
“Unless government establishes laws that would make the COVID-19 vaccine compulsory, organisations cannot demand that their workers take the vaccine. What employers can do is encourage workers to be vaccinated,” Baig advised.
