Workers quit over vaccine mandate, leaving vacancies in the public sector

Some public servants chose to give up their jobs rather than complying with the government’s mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

“In some cases, you would have had resignation letters already submitted. So, persons who were employed only up to yesterday have indicated that they no longer wish to be employed, which means they have created a vacancy,” Cabinet Secretary Konata Lee said on Friday.

Friday was the first day of unpaid leave for unvaccinated public servants, not covered by exemptions to the policy.

Cabinet had earlier announced that it would hire temporary workers to fill any gaps created when the measure took effect on October 1.

Lee said as a result of the resignations, people who applied for the temporary jobs “may have an opportunity to be employed right away.”

On the other hand, employees who qualify for medical and religious exemptions or receive authorization to work from home will not suffer any loss of pay for not taking the vaccine.

Nevertheless, Lee said many people who applied for the exemptions were still awaiting responses since “the government has not yet updated the regulation to process the requests.”

“The process was not fully implemented during the past two weeks but the forms will be available come Monday,” he revealed and added that people would be able to download the forms from the government’s website.

“I know persons will be concerned whether or not they will be penalized for not having submitted their forms because they were not available at the time, but they have so far submitted the application in writing. So, there is already an indication that they would have expressed their intention to apply for a medical or religious exemption, so that will be taken into account and they won’t be penalized by way of non-payment as a result of that,” he assured.

Although several workers remained at home, Lee said attendance on Friday was “normal.”

“I know they might have been minor disruptions where people might have perceived that but as of today, there were no major disruptions across the public service,” he explained.

The Cabinet Secretary said the government was monitoring the number of public servants who have so far taken the vaccine.

“The numbers range anywhere from 50 to 100% vaccination in some offices. So, this is really good, which means there will be less persons out of office… and less disruption across the public service,” Lee said.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]