Unvaccinated individuals are barred from returning to the workplace from Jan 15

January 12, 2022 17:22

 

No return to the workplace for unvaccinated workers

Unvaccinated workers will not be able to return to their workplaces even with a negative pre-event testing (PET) result from Jan 15 onwards. Workers who are partially vaccinated will be given a grace period of up till Jan 31 to complete their full vaccination regime and be allowed to return to the workplace with a negative PET result during the grace period. As of Dec 27 last year, around 52,000 employees remain unvaccinated with 80 percent of companies attaining 100 percent vaccine coverage for their workforce. This also suggests that 98 percent of the total workforce in Singapore has been vaccinated. Unvaccinated workers could be redeployed to jobs that can be done from home, be placed on no-pay leave, or terminated as a last resort.

 

Some employers indicated that they would not hire unvaccinated workers in the future

Prior to the Jan 15 deadline, some workers have already been asked to leave their jobs due to their unvaccinated status. TODAY interviewed a few employers on their view of this new rule and these employers indicated that such a move would affect their hiring policy in the immediate future. Some employers indicated that they would no longer hire unvaccinated workers as they would have to work from home and that would affect productivity and communication with their co-workers. Only one employer indicated that if the candidate could not be vaccinated due to medical reasons, the firm would allow him/her to work from home instead.

 

What do you think of this move barring unvaccinated workers from returning to the workplace? Do you think there could be other measures to encourage the remaining 52,000 workers to become vaccinated?