Mining Weekly reports that the social partners in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) will hold emergency meetings this week about the institution of workplace vaccine mandates and the imposition of public access restrictions for the unvaccinated.

This will be amid low vaccine uptake levels, the emergence of a new Covid variant, travel bans and growing signs of a fourth wave of infections. The meetings follow President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Sunday that government had set up a task team that would undertake consultations on making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations. Ramaphosa said consultations had already been initiated regarding the introduction of measures that make vaccination a condition for access to workplaces, public events, public transport and public establishments. Business for SA’s (B4SA’s) Martin Kingston said business was encouraged by the formation of the task team and revealed on Monday that Nedlac meetings would be held this week to “work through the finer details” of vaccine mandates and access restrictions. Business Unity SA’s (Busa’s) CEO Cas Coovadia advised that business was also preparing to approach the courts for a declarator regarding the legality of workplace mandates, but indicated that this was unlikely to take place before early in 2022. In the interim, organised business would consider supporting those firms that might be facing legal challenges to the institution of workplace mandates.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly
• Read too, Business urges vaccine mandates to step up coverage ahead of fourth wave, at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page