DLP advises bosses to encourage, not force, vaccine

| 06/08/2021 | 167 Comments
Cayman News Service
Airport Vaccine Clinic

(CNS): As the question over whether or not employers can force their workers to be vaccinated continues to fuel public debate, the Department of Labour and Pensions has issued some general guidance on COVID-19 vaccination policies for employers and the impact on existing and potential employees, as well as data protection issues relating to vaccination status.

While employers have a legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their employees as far as reasonably possible, the department warned that engaging in a policy to mandate vaccination could raise several legal issues if employers take punitive, disciplinary or discriminatory action when an employee refuses to be vaccinated.

Even though some form of determined action is going to be needed to move the vaccination rate, which remains stalled at 68% and several thousand people short of government’s 80% target, the department pointed out that unless there is a contractual requirement for workers to be vaccinated, employers need the consent of their employees.

The guidelines instead suggest that employers help their staff make an informed decision through education with independent factual information about the risks associated with COVID-19 and the specific impact on the workplace. “Employers should assist employees by explaining the benefits of vaccination, and encourage and employees to be vaccinated,” the department said.

There are currently no regulations in place concerning compulsory vaccination and any employer considering introducing a blanket mandatory vaccination policy needs to be wary of the implications of then disciplining existing staff that refuse to take the shots. “Employers should approach the taking of disciplinary action with caution since dismissing an employee is not without legal risk,” the DLP warned.

Some employees may have a legitimate basis for declining the vaccine irrespective of their work environment and employers need to consider their ability to mitigate the safety threat instead.

“Consideration should also be given to whether mandatory vaccination is a reasonable way to deal with the potential risk of exposure to the virus in specific circumstances and whether alternative measures could be taken to mitigate the risk,” the department advises.

As a number of local companies now consider moving from incentives to mandating the shots, concerns are being raised that there are potential legal ramifications over a person’s right to choose whether they are given medical treatment or not, as well as issues relating to their data protection by being forced to expose their vaccination status, since this is medical data and constitutes “sensitive personal data” under the Data Protection Act.

The Cayman Islands Government is not mandating vaccination for public sector workers and has chosen a path of encouragement, even for front-line staff. From Monday, as government lifts the requirement for verified vaccinated travellers to isolate for five days at home without the tagging system, all unvaccinated front-line workers that may interact with travellers will be tested at least weekly.

See the DLP guidelines in the CNS Library.


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid

Tags: , ,

Category: Business

Comments (167)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. The Science says:

    ANTI-BODY DEPENDENT ENHANCEMENT

    XXXX

    https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/antibody-dependent-enhancement-and-vaccines

    CNS: I only deleted the selected bits you picked out. It’s all there in the link that you supplied. You missed this bit, though: Can the new COVID-19 vaccines cause ADE?

    Neither COVID-19 disease nor the new COVID-19 vaccines have shown evidence of causing ADE. People infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have not been likely to develop ADE upon repeat exposure. This is true of other coronaviruses as well. Likewise, studies of vaccines in the laboratory with animals or in the clinical trials in people have not found evidence of ADE.

    Here’s more: Do COVID-19 vaccines cause antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), also known as vaccine enhanced disease (VED)? Short answer: no.

    • Big Bobo In West Bay says:

      With a DLP position like this we will not be opening this year.

      They should be mandating all CIG employees get mandated ASAP.

      Most major corporations in the U.S. have now started to mandate that employees must get vaccinated.

      There is no other alternative if we seriously want to get out of this dilemma.

      We cannot handle a Florida health situation here or we will have a total breakdown of our public health system.

  2. Anonymous says:

    So, know that we know DLP actually has employees……they gonna crack down on those businesses still delinquent in pension contributions?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Bring a case against Al T for withholding the bonuses of unvaccinated staff. It is shameless coercion via the Tyranny of the Workplace.

  4. Anonymous says:

    It will be interesting to see whether the DLP will publish amended ‘guidance’ now that the obvious errors have been pointed out or whether they will leave the errors out there.

  5. Anonymous says:

    This is Trojan horse advice.

    Caveat emptor.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I forgot…what were the mandatory provisions for HIV/AIDS diagnoses? What are the mandatory provisions for influenza? I have many coronaviruses in my body. So do you. Get real. Stop being led like a bull with a ring through his nose.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Because CDC and Public Health England said vaccination doesnt stop transmission doesnt mean they r against vaccination. Pl dont draw wrong conclusions. They r saying it prevents severe illness but as it doesnt stop transmission pl continue wearing mask, maintain physical distance, avoid crowds , sanitize etc.

    • Anonymous says:

      You either obviously don’t live here or have been in a home bubble since March 2020. There is NO community transmission currently in Cayman and has not been since at least July 2020, so your mask advice is utterly unnecessary, not that masks work anyway.

      • Anonymous says:

        Cayman is a bubble. That’s the problem. When COVID gets here, it could present in multiple variants. This is what a low vaccine rate and isolation yields. It’s actually sad and scary.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Every day I read more and more articles about the regrets of people as it pertains to the vaccine. People it is not going to kill but it might help ya if you happen to get COVID-19.

    Read this article:
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/42-old-fitness-fanatic-beating-090128572.html

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes BBC and CNN full of those. Good and reliable Sources.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yeah you should be a real Patriot and watch FOX News, the only source for news that is not fake. (sic)

        The Virus is a fake disease and 99% of people survive from it. 600k people in the USA did not die from the virus. That is a lie made up by the fake media like CNN, ABC,CBS,NBC, BBC and Al Jazera. THe fake media goes into ICU’s and pays people to give fake stories about covid. None of those being interviewed even have covid.

        Masks and social distancing don’t work. Our great orange Leader has told us that and we believe him. Fauci lied. The fake media even lies that out Leader and the Governor of Florida are vaccinated. They are not vaccinated. They wouldn’t put that poison in their bodies.

        No one can tell me what I can do with my body, except my Leader and he tells me not to get the vaccine as it is experimental and he knows that because he was the one that approved all of the funding to get it done. The FDA will approve it now because “the steal” happened and Biden will force them to say they approved it.

        Covid is just a flu like we get every year. People are very rarely hospitalized. People don’t die from Covid. It’s just a “made up” disease named perfectly by our great orange Leader as the Chinavirus.

        Signed,

        Caymanian Patriot and Antivaxxer

        • Anonymous says:

          It’s unfortunate that you can’t hardly tell the difference anymore between a sarcastic poster, a troll or a complete moron.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.