Cosatu plans to challenge mandatory COVID-19 vaccination at a “national, policy level” and wants workers who have been dismissed for non-compliance to be reinstated.
Matthew Parks, Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator, told Business Day that while the union supports vaccination, it cannot support the dismissal of workers in a country of 60m people where only about 14.9m have jobs. There is a “diversity of views” among Cosatu’s affiliates, many of which regard mandatory vaccination policies as “polarising”, he said.
He added that while it was up to individual unions to take up the matter with various companies or sectors that have instituted mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, Cosatu would be lobbying for the reinstatement of workers who were dismissed for non-compliance at a “national, policy level”.
“Cosatu supports the vaccine roll-out programme and … we believe that education and addressing the fears of workers and society is the best way to persuade people to vaccinate,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Threatening and dismissing workers only serves to poison what has already become a very charged and divided debate across the world.”
Cosatu’s response may be the first salvo in a broader worker-led war against mandatory workplace vaccination.
Unlawful
It follows a recent Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling that suggests such policies may be unlawful.
“The federation calls on all workers who have been dismissed to approach their unions and lodge grievances with the CCMA and labour courts,” Cosatu said. “Dismissing workers who have fears only serves to create divisions.”
Standard Bank made an abrupt U-turn on mandatory vaccination late on Monday after threats by finance union Sasbo to challenge the dismissal of at least 40 of its members for non-compliance.
Sasbo, which represents about 73,000 workers in the financial services sector, said while it welcomed Standard Bank’s decision to withdraw the policy, it does not regard the matter as closed.
Sasbo secretary-general Modime Joe Kokela said the union would not only be demanding the reinstatement of Standard Bank employees dismissed for not complying with mandatory vaccination, but it also wanted those who have been placed on special leave for the same reason to be able to return to work “unconditionally”.
Standard Bank SA CEO Lungisa Fuzile told employees that it would be revising some of its safety measures: “Based on the current context of the pandemic, we believe our vaccination policy is no longer required. Consequentially, it is no longer compulsory for employees to be vaccinated, or to produce a negative PCR or rapid antigen test if they are unvaccinated, to enter our premises.”
However, reports News24, the bank did not elaborate on what would happen to the 40 workers it has already dismissed and those still placed on special leave. Instead, it said it continued to encourage vaccination.
‘Constructive dismissal’
Sasbo said it would be evaluating the situation of workers who resigned due to Standard Bank’s mandatory vaccination policy as it regarded these exits as “constructive dismissal”– a labour law term for resignations that occur in response to intolerable conduct by employers.
Kokela added that Sasbo would also engage with Old Mutual about the reinstatement of at least 49 members dismissed for non-compliance with the firm’s mandatory vaccination policies.
Old Mutual told Business Day the 49 employees were dismissed only after they refused both COVID-19 vaccination and the option to undergo regular testing for the virus. The group said it amended its policies on 22 June and mandatory vaccination for employees was no longer in place.
While Sasbo was aware of the mandatory vaccination policies of other financial services firms such as Discovery, Sanlam and Santam, Kokela said the union was not aware of any members dismissed at those firms for non-compliance.
Santam said it reviewed its vaccination policy towards the end of June and, given that more than 90% of its employees are vaccinated, it believes the risk posed by COVID-19 in the workplace has been “significantly reduced”.
While Santam still requires new employees to be vaccinated or to apply for exemption, it no longer requires verified vaccination status to access its offices.
Non-vaccinated employees are not required to undergo COVID-19 screening to access its offices, though they must work from another location if they test positive for the virus.
Sanlam, which owns about 62% of Santam, also said it had relaxed some of its COVID-19 policies from 23 June, thanks to the “overwhelming majority” of its staff being vaccinated. Both companies said they had not dismissed any staff for non-compliance with their policies.
Sasbo has avoided going to the CCMA because of the inconsistency of its rulings on the issue of mandatory vaccination. But it now plans to approach the Labour Court. And if it doesn’t get joy there, it is prepared to take the matter all the way to the Constitutional Court.
“It’s only now that we saw justice prevailing through the CCMA,” said Kokela. “So, we are not even going to approach the CCMA because the 30 days have lapsed.”
In May, the CCMA ruled that a Johannesburg-headquartered medical equipment supplier, Baroque Medical, was justified in firing an invoicing clerk for refusing to get vaccinated. But a month later, it ruled that the same company’s application of its mandatory vaccination policy – in the case of an inventory controller – was “substantively unfair” and “unconstitutional”. It awarded the second employee just under R300,000 in compensation.
Discovery said while its mandatory vaccination policy remains in place, no employees have been dismissed for non-compliance, though it added that 98% of staff are vaccinated.
“For the small number of employees who objected to COVID-19 vaccination and remained unvaccinated, reasonable accommodation has been agreed in most cases,” said Ronald Whelan, the head of Discovery’s COVID-19 task team.
“Employees whose objections to vaccination were not deemed to be reasonable and justifiable by the objections subcommittee and an independent appeals committee received warning letters for noncompliance.”
The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) said while it has always encouraged vaccination against COVID-19, it believes it should be a voluntary process. “It is irresponsible for employers to impose mandatory workplace vaccination because we believe it should be a consultative process that is not imposed on workers,” Fedusa general secretary Riefdah Ajam said.
‘Get vaccinated’
"(But) we will do everything we can to encourage our members to get vaccinated.”
National Council of Trade Unions general secretary Narius Moloto said the council was “totally against” mandatory workplace vaccinations, a policy it regards as “wrong”.
“Vaccinations must be voluntary because people have a right to refuse to be vaccinated,” said Moloto. “That right must be upheld. Such employers are simply arrogant.”
SA Federation of Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi described the recent CCMA ruling as “an important victory” for workers and suggested that there is a hidden agenda behind the insistence by employers on mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.
“They are using vaccine mandates to achieve their nefarious goals, and we reject this,” said Vavi.
“They are using it to retrench workers. Such employers who are forcing vaccines on workers must be charged for undermining the constitution that gives every worker the right to integrity of their body.”
A Business Day editorial says the brief battle between trade union and employer over the vaccine mandate at Standard Bank serves as a sad reminder of the opportunity SA has lost to make its vaccine drive the success.
As it is, only about 50% of SA’s adult population has received at least one dose. Even fewer are fully vaccinated with their two Pfizer doses, and the figure for those who’ve received booster shots is lower still. Meanwhile, the daily number of shots being administered has fallen to a woefully low 14,000 or so. After all the time and trouble of the private and public sectors to procure enough doses and put the extensive infrastructure in place for the rollout, SA finds itself at risk of having to throw away 8m expired doses of the Covid vaccine.
That might not seem to matter given that the pandemic is largely over. But Covid-19 is still very much with us. New and more infectious variants emerge all the time and could continue to do so in future. And the evidence is compelling. Vaccinations significantly reduce hospitalisation and death from the virus. They also reduce the prevalence of long Covid. And they make it less likely people who catch the virus will infect others. In other words, in a world in which the virus may now be endemic, getting the jab still matters for all our lives and livelihoods.
The trouble is the incentive to get jabbed has dwindled, with the latest wave having passed in SA and the number of cases, especially severe cases, currently very low. It’s a lost opportunity for SA, which could yet face future and more serious waves. And it was lost in part because the government was ambivalent in its communications and tardy in its rollout, particularly in its efforts to ensure easy and widespread access to people in townships and rural areas. That tardiness allowed vaccine hesitancy to fester, with the health department’s efforts lagging social media fake news. And political leaders’ ambivalence about incentives or mandates didn’t help.
Globally, even traditionally vaccine-hesitant countries such as France achieved high jab rates by insisting people show vaccination certificates if they wanted to access bars or sports matches or concerts — using the carrot rather than stick approach, as it were. Here, the government declined to go either route. But in the private sector both those routes proved successful. Companies and industries that put workplace clinics in place to ease and encourage the process for employees achieved high vaccination rates: for example, in the mining industry where well over 70% of workers (almost 100% in some mines) have been fully vaccinated, with the full support of trade unions. Companies such as Discovery and Standard Bank that implemented “soft” mandates did very well too.
Employers are obliged to ensure safe working conditions for their employees, which surely includes not exposing them unnecessarily to those who have refused to be vaccinated and are therefore more likely to catch and transmit Covid. One would have expected trade unions to support that. Which is why the divides within the trade union movement over vaccine mandates are puzzling. Cosatu has, importantly, been careful to say it is not against mandating vaccines as such — it’s just opposed to workers being dismissed for noncompliance. Some of the other labour groupings are more combative about the issue. Cosatu wants a national policy debate on mandates.
It may be belated but it’s a debate SA needs to have.
Debate on vaccine mandates is one SA needs to have
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
CCMA victory for employee dismissed over vaccine refusal
CCMA: Zero-severance retrenchment for jab refusal is fair
Staff vaccine mandates halted at Woolworths, Dis-Chem