The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) be­lieves the one-month ex­ten­sion to al­low pub­lic ser­vants to be­come vac­ci­nat­ed, is an at­tempt by the State to buy it­self some time to en­sure the rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion is in place so the au­thor­i­ties can act if and when work­ers refuse.

Pub­lic ser­vants were fac­ing a dead­line of Jan­u­ary 17, to be­come vac­ci­nat­ed against the COVID-19 virus and fail­ure to do so would have re­sult­ed in work­ers be­ing fur­loughed.

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's, on Sat­ur­day, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced the ex­ten­sion as he said At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi was still in the process of fi­nal­is­ing the pol­i­cy changes.

Re­spond­ing im­me­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing Row­ley's an­nounce­ment, NATUC's Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette urged peo­ple not to be fooled by the tem­po­rary re­prieve as he said, "If you are to hang and they ex­tend that hang­ing by one month, does that change what is to hap­pen?

"Does that take away from the re­al is­sue fac­ing work­ers of T&T where a gov­ern­ment is say­ing if you are not vac­ci­nat­ed, you can lose your job, you will not be able to feed your fam­i­ly?"

An­nisette said these were ques­tions that need­ed to be asked, "We at NATUC will not be mis­guid­ed."

In­di­cat­ing NATUC will be guid­ed by the sci­ence and facts, he said, "The re­al­i­ty is that noth­ing has changed and as a mat­ter of fact, it has com­pli­cat­ed the mat­ter more be­cause it is clear there is an agen­da by this Gov­ern­ment that speaks to mar­gin­al­is­ing peo­ple who have ex­er­cised their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights in terms of COVID-19 and the ev­i­dence that is com­ing out dai­ly."

An­nisette ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of be­ing hell-bent on get­ting its own way.

How­ev­er, he cau­tioned, "That is not how you run a democ­ra­cy."

An­nisette de­scribed the pol­i­cy stance by the Gov­ern­ment to cre­ate qua­si safe zones which could lead to work­ers be­ing be­com­ing un­em­ployed, as "in­hu­mane, in­sen­si­tive and a fun­da­men­tal breach of a per­son's right to em­ploy­ment and to earn a liveli­hood."