CTUSAB calls on workers to get COVID-19 vaccine

The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) is encouraging all workers and members of the public to be COVID-19 immunized. 

CTUSAB says it is making the call with the understanding that there is an urgent need for the country to return to a state of normalcy and a relatively safe and healthy environment.

But while it is urging members of the workforce and the public to be immunized, the Congress says it accepts and supports that this remains subject to voluntary participation. 

The Congress is therefore cautioning employers that in the absence of any existing law, and where there is no contractual requirement for an employee to be immunized, that they have no lawful means to force an employee to comply to a request to be immunized. 

It says employers should therefore refrain from the use of tactics, which include victimization, intimidation or punitive measures against employees who exercise their right not to be immunized. 

It is strongly recommended that instead, employers undertake to resort to the use of moral suasion.