Unvaccinated staff of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) continued to be off the job yesterday for a second day in the working week as the agency maintains its push for staff to be inoculated against the COVID-19 virus.
Although the maritime agency does not have a policy that allows for unvaccinated staff to be sent home, Director General Stephen Thomas yesterday told Stabroek News that they are giving staff the time off to be vaccinated.
Members of staff who have not been vaccinated were given a second day off, Thomas informed yesterday as he explained that they will be encouraging employees to take their jabs.
Asked if unvaccinated staff will be allowed to return to the agency if they choose not to be vaccinated, Thomas responded in the negative and said that they are dealing with the matter on a day-to-day basis.
“When tomorrow comes we will deal with that and the next day and the next day and so on. As it is there is no decision or policy in place to send home staff or suspend staff until they are vaccinated. We are looking at this matter on a day-to-day basis,” he told Stabroek News via phone yesterday.
The Director General further stated that the push for staff to be vaccinated is in keeping with government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign and to have staff and customers protected against the deadly virus while transacting business.
Questioned further if the option to provide a negative PCR test is available to staff members, he responded in the negative and noted that they were advised by the government to have persons vaccinated rather than have them just tested for the virus.
The maritime agency yesterday met with unvaccinated staff and informed them of the decision taken and requested that they be vaccinated.
The new requirement caught the employees off guard after it was announced during a meeting on Tuesday morning. They were initially told that the vaccines were not mandatory, but during the meeting they were informed of the new policy for all staff to be vaccinated.
“[Tuesday] we introduced this measure to send staff to get vaccinated, some went and got vaccinated. [Wednesday] we will decide what happens with those who did not get vaccinated,” the Director General was quoted as saying.
Employers in the private and public sectors have implemented new policies to protect vaccinated workers by mandating that staff who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine provide evidence of a negative PCR test result. Some places of work require evidence of a negative PCR test weekly while others require it fortnightly.
The unvaccinated employees are required to cover the cost of every test they are subjected to.
Operators of passenger boats have also been informed that they risk being suspended or having their licences revoked if they operate while unvaccinated against the virus.
The requirements for speedboat captains, bowmen, and monitors were announced in the new provisions of the updated COVID-19 Emergency Measures gazetted by the Ministry of Health. The requirement took effect from August 1.
According to the new requirement, all public transport operators are now required to be vaccinated and must have their vaccination card and any form of official identification on them at all times.
