BL Premium reports that Standard Bank wants to re-hire staff it fired for refusing to comply with its mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy, which it repealed last week after union threats to challenge the policy in court.
The bank has also stopped all workplace incapacity hearings for unvaccinated staff, who were now being welcomed back to work, the bank said in a statement on Friday. Unvaccinated employees are also no longer required to undergo PCR or rapid antigen tests before they can access Standard Bank premises. Standard Bank SA CEO Lungisa Fuzile said: “Unfortunately there are a number of unvaccinated employees that we parted company with, after they declined the alternative of testing which had been offered to them. Following the withdrawal of the [mandatory vaccination] policy, we are engaging with these colleagues to explore re-employment opportunities, as we feel strongly that this is the right thing to do.” Standard Bank withdrew its mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy last Monday, just three days after finance union Sasbo vowed to fight the policy after at least 40 of its members were dismissed by the bank for non-compliance. A day after Standard Bank scrapped its mandatory vaccination policy, Cosatu announced that it too would be challenging mandatory Covid-19 vaccination at a “national, policy level”. Sasbo’s Modime Joe Kokela said the union would be engaging with the bank on the terms of re-employment for its affected members. Standard Bank’s rapid about-turn on vaccines is likely to pile pressure on other firms that have dismissed workers for refusing to comply with these policies. Old Mutual has sacked at least 49 Sasbo members for refusing both Covid-19 vaccination and the option to undergo regular testing for the virus. Insurance group Discovery is one of the few listed firms that continues to impose a mandatory vaccination policy though the firm told Business Day this past week it had not dismissed anyone for non-compliance as 98% of its staff are vaccinated.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Garth Theunissen at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- See too, Standard Bank withdraws mandatory vaccination policy, at Fin24
- En ook, Standard Bank gee toe aan eis oor werknemers, by Maroela Media
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page