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Saturday, March 15, 2025

More Government workers get vaccinated to keep jobs

by

Carisa Lee
1164 days ago
20220106
Two workers walk out the Ministry of Finance Revenue Division, Government Campus Plaza, in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

Two workers walk out the Ministry of Finance Revenue Division, Government Campus Plaza, in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Stuck be­tween a rock and a hard place.

That’s how two Gov­ern­ment work­ers said they felt af­ter they took the vac­cine on Wednes­day.

Last month Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced that from mid-Jan­u­ary Gov­ern­ment work­places will re­quire vac­ci­nat­ed staff and un­vac­ci­nat­ed work­ers will be fur­loughed.

It’s the main rea­son why one em­ploy­ee of the Na­tion­al Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty Com­pa­ny (MTS) who asked to re­main anony­mous de­cid­ed to get vac­ci­nat­ed.

He spoke to Guardian Me­dia out­side the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Plaza on Rich­mond Street in Port of Spain.

“I do it be­cause I have a fam­i­ly to mind and if it is I out of a job they will catch their tail to sur­vive,” he said.

The man said his en­tire fam­i­ly is un­vac­ci­nat­ed be­cause they don’t trust the ef­fec­tive­ness of the vac­cine but to pro­vide for them he de­cid­ed to take the jab.

“So I say let me come and do it,” he said.

A con­ver­sa­tion he re­vealed was dif­fi­cult to have with his wife.

“It was tense be­cause and she keep telling me to hold out and hold on un­til the last minute but the way the com­pa­ny push­ing,” he ex­plained.

All COVID-19 vac­cines used in T&T are ap­proved by the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) and have met the nec­es­sary cri­te­ria for safe­ty and ef­fi­ca­cy against the dis­ease.

The MTS work­er al­so did not have faith in the union move­ment.

On Tues­day the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) called on all pub­lic sec­tor work­ers to re­port for du­ty come Jan­u­ary 17, vac­ci­nat­ed or not.

He said he is a union mem­ber but was not will­ing to take that risk.

“At the end of the day they are not putting food on your ta­ble, you can be out of work and they could still be talk­ing,” he said.

He be­lieves this ul­ti­ma­tum will see many pub­lic ser­vants out of work by the 17.

A risk one Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion work­er who al­so did not want to give his name did not want to take, iden­ti­fied on­ly as King took the John­son and John­son vac­cine but af­ter a lot of de­lib­er­a­tion.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he has been em­ployed at the cor­po­ra­tion for over 30 years and did not want to lose his job.

“Af­ter plen­ty thought, you know, not just so, be­ing there for so many years and XYZ have to pay, it does not make sense that you fall out just so,” he said.

He said he hes­i­tat­ed be­cause of his spir­i­tu­al­i­ty but al­so be­cause of “brav­ery and get­ting in­for­ma­tion.”

He took the John­son and John­son vac­cine, while the MTS took Sinopham both men said they felt fine af­ter­wards.

Two oth­er Gov­ern­ment work­ers came for more in­for­ma­tion be­fore get­ting in­oc­u­lat­ed, they said they both felt com­fort­able with tak­ing the jab af­ter speak­ing to the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA) of­fi­cials.

They will re­turn on Fri­day.


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