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Fin24 reports that labour federation Cosatu says it will push back hard against companies that impose any form of Covid-19 vaccination mandate on their employees – and will fight for those who lost their jobs because they refused to be vaccinated to be reinstated.
This came after Standard Bank said last week that it would withdraw its vaccine mandate and would no longer require unvaccinated employees to test for Covid-19 before accessing its premises. The bank had dismissed 40 employees and put others on special leave. It has since said it would engage those who were dismissed to discuss reappointment options. Standard Bank suspended the policy after locking horns with Cosatu affiliate Sasbo, which had also threatened to take Old Mutual to the Labour Court for its vaccine mandate after the insurer dismissed 49 people. Cosatu said it expected other companies that imposed vaccine mandates on employees to follow Standard Bank in reconsidering their approach as the pandemic wound down. Last year, companies including MTN, Discovery, Anglo American, Old Mutual, Aspen, Life Healthcare, and ENSafrica all imposed some sort of internal policy about employees taking the Covid-19 vaccine in order to continue working, accessing the office, or enjoying certain benefits. Cosatu parliamentary liaison officer Matthew Parks said SA was facing economic devastation, lacklustre growth, rising household costs, and stubborn unemployment, which made a mandate of vaccination in the workplace untenable. "Many frontline workers cannot work remotely and face a different set of risks. There must be consultation between workers and employers in a company. The regulation provided for a medical exemption, constitutional and freedom of expression grounds," Parks pointed out. He said employers should have rather used counselling, discussion forums, and workshops to win employees over.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page