DOLE urged to issue guidelines to protect workers vs. 'no vaccine, no work' policy

Senator Joel Villanueva on Thursday appealed to the Department of Labor and Employment to issue clear guidelines on the reported "no vaccine, no work" policy to ensure that workers' rights are upheld and protected.

In a statement, Villanueva, who chairs the Senate committee on labor, warned against discriminating workers who decide not to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“A worker can be late for work and be penalized with salary deduction. But a government guilty of vaccine tardiness faces no such reprimand, even if it causes the nation P2.8 billion in economic losses daily,” Villanueva said.

“A worker who is not yet immune from the virus shouldn't lose his immunity from being fired arbitrarily," he added.

The senator said that instead of forcing workers to get a vaccine and threatening their employment, employers should be carrying out confidence building efforts in their company.

“The biggest challenge at the moment for the labor-employer-government tripartite is not just to give more workers better vaccines but also to increase vaccine confidence,” Villanueva said.

"Sa pagbabakuna, the best pa rin po ang 'Sana All.' We cannot have a workforce divided between the ‘Jabbed’ and the ‘Jabbed Nots,'" he added.

Several groups have opposed the supposed plan of some companies to impose a "no vaccine, no work" policy.

Some workers have reportedly approached the Associated Labor Union as early as last year expressing their concern over a warning by employers that their company will implement a "no vaccine, no work" policy.

Villanueva said workers should not be faulted for refusing to be vaccinated if they still have concerns on the vaccine to be used on them.

The challenge for the government now is to increase the public's level of confidence on the vaccines, he added.

"There has to be a concerted effort to bring up the degree of trust on vaccines because the restoration of jobs lost in the pandemic, and to a larger extent, our economic recovery, depend on the success of the vaccination program,” Villanueva said.

“If it is a brand even doctors are rejecting, you can understand where the hesitancy is coming from,” he added.

Villanueva earlier called on the government to have workers vaccinated as soon as possible, saying that the economy can only recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic if workers are protected against the disease.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the reported "no vaccine, no work" policy is illegal, as workers cannot be forced to get a vaccine if they do not want to.—AOL, GMA News