#SpeakingOut – Which is it, Mr Jordan?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by R. Bancroft (vaccinated & self-employed)

In the immortal words of the late and I must add great calypsonian Smokey Burke, I may be wrong and I often am, but I do not believe Labour Minister Colin Jordan is a lawyer, is he? But whether he is or not, he has me completely befuddled as a layman.

A few weeks ago, he as a layman as well, contradicted a queen’s counsel when he said that employers cannot get rid of unvaccinated employees.

Now this is a gray area because my and your generation has never had to deal with a pandemic, legally or politically. But the lawyer that spoke in the paper said that employers had a duty to provide a safe environment for their employees.

He also suggested that if unvaccinated employees provided a danger to the overall staff complement or to the business [words to that effect) then the buck stopped at the employer in terms of ensuring his workplace was safe and if being safe involved letting go of the unvaccinated employee, then that would be the case.

But Jordan suggested that was not so.

Now the same Jordan in the media saying that business owners have a legal requirement to provide a safe working environment for employees.

But if they have to provide a safe environment for all staff and an unvaccinated employee is presenting a danger and the same Jordan saying the employer cannot get rid of him, what then can the employer do?

Shut down his livelihood? Hand over the business to staff? Get an economics consultancy with Government? What?