ILOILO City – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is urging employers in Western Visayas to encourage employees, especially those reporting physically for work, to get vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) issued resolutions No. 148 and 149 dated Nov. 12 and Nov. 18, respectively, directing all establishments and employers to require their employees who must report in person to be inoculated beginning Dec. 1.
“It is merely to encourage employers in private establishments to let their employees get vaccinated,” said Atty. Sixto T. Rodriguez Jr., officer-in-charge director of DOLE in Region 6.
According to Rodriguez, while there is no law mandating the “no vaccination, no work” or “no jab, no pay” policies, “employers are not allowed to discriminate employees for no vaccination.”
He echoed Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III who earlier bucked the mandatory vaccination.
In a virtual presser on Monday, Labor assistant secretary Teresita Cucue said those who do not want to be vaccinated but have to work on-site can still report, “but they have to be tested (for COVID-19) at their own expense.”
IATF-MEID said all unvaccinated workers must undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing “regularly or at least once every two weeks” to be able to work on-site.
“A rapid antigen test may be used when RT-PCR is insufficient or not immediately available,” it added.
Rodriguez clarified it would be “part of the management’s prerogative to set and lay down policies.”
“When there is already a policy and this policy is properly disseminated to all employees and properly posted… (If these) policies are known to the employees and they did not question such, then that policy becomes a rule,” added Rodriguez.
In a previous interview with Panay News, Rodriguez reiterated DOLE’s guidelines on the administration of COVID-19 jabs in workplaces.
“Covered establishments and employers shall endeavor to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. However, employees who refuse or fail to be vaccinated shall not be discriminated against in terms of tenure, promotion, training pay, and other benefits, among others, or terminated from employment,” DOLE stressed.
Particularly, DOLE’s issuance covers those with “employee-employer relationship.”
However, according to Rodriguez, in the absence of such, “then that’s the management’s prerogative of which DOLE – or other government agencies – cannot intervene with.”
“They are the owners of the establishment. They have right to protect their employees,” he added.
“Pero kon mayroong employer-employee relationship at mayroong ganyang policy and the employees were not properly informed, they should be penalized,” Rodriguez said./PN
