Unvaccinated workers may be fired as a last resort from Jan 1, 2022

NewsOctober 28, 2021 10:56

According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), workers who refuse to declare their vaccination status would be deemed as being unvaccinated and employers can choose to fire employees who do not cooperate with the workforce vaccination measures as a final resort.

 

Workforce Vaccination Measures 

Companies can also enforce a vaccination requirement upfront for new hires for its manpower deployment and these measures apply to everyone working on-site including vendors and contractors. Staff could be requested to show their vaccination status through Tracetogetherapp and token, health hub app, or the original vaccination card. This is an update from the Jul 2 joint advisory by MOM and its tripartite partners that staff should not be penalized if they reject vaccination.

In essence, only those workers who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 in the past 270 days will be allowed to return to their workplaces from Jan 1, 2022, onwards.


What about workers who are unvaccinated?

Unvaccinated employees (including pregnant women and individuals who are medically ineligible to take Covid-19 vaccines) would need to bear the costs of tests administered at MOH-approved providers to certify that they have tested negative for COVID-19 before they could return to work. The test result must be valid for the duration for which they are present at the workplace. Negative antigen rapid results (ART) are only valid for 24 hours. Employers are encouraged to allow this group of unvaccinated workers(pregnant women and medically ineligible individuals) to work from home where possible or redeployed to suitable positions where they could work from work.

For other unvaccinated employees with no special considerations, they may be allowed to continue if they bear the costs of pre-event testing, be redeployed to other positions that can allow them to work from home, be placed on no-pay leave, or be terminated as a last resort.


96 percent of Singapore’s workforce has been vaccinated
As of October 17, 96 percent of the local labor force has been vaccinated with 70 percent of companies achieving 100 percent vaccination rates.
"Nevertheless, there remain around 113,000 unvaccinated employees, of which around 14,000 are above the age of 60, who are at high risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 infection...Only a small proportion of these 113,000 employees are medically ineligible for vaccination," said MOM. Sinovac has also been included as part of the national vaccination program for those individuals who are unable to take the mRNA vaccines.

 

What do you think of this latest advisory by the authorities? Do you think the remaining 113,000 unvaccinated employees would be encouraged to take up vaccination in view of the above measures?