BL Premium reports that private hospital group Netcare is holding back on making Covid-19 vaccination compulsory, saying it would rather persuade than compel its employees to get jabbed.
“We have taken a very different approach to our competitors. We believe there are complex issues here, and we need to seek to understand why people are objecting, (and) whether we can overcome these objections. In the vast majority of cases we have been able to,” Netcare CEO Richard Friedland said on Monday. He went on to indicate: “We are very comfortable with the levels we are achieving — over 85% are vaccinated and we continue to improve.” Friedland indicated that Netcare was waiting for the outcome of Business Unity SA’s request to the courts for a declaratory order on the legality of workplace vaccine mandates. “That will be enormously helpful. It is a critical issue for all of us,” he said. Mediclinic International and Life Healthcare both announced in October that they were introducing mandatory vaccination policies for staff and providers, joining a growing number of companies that have followed the lead of health and life insurer Discovery. The SA Human Rights Commission has said a law mandating vaccination would not be at odds with the constitution, but the government has stopped short of making vaccination compulsory for fear of pushback, with unions opposed to compulsory immunisation.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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