Chairman of the National Tripartite Council (NTC) Robert Farquharson said yesterday that the law couldn’t be more clear on the matter of employers requiring employees to pay for their own COVID-19 tests instead of getting vaccinated.
In recent months since the rollout of vaccines in The Bahamas, various employers have mandated that employees either get vaccinated or pay for a rapid antigen test every week to show proof that they do not have COVID-19.
Pointing to section nine of the Health and Safety at Work Act, Farquharson said employers do not familiarize themselves with the law and as a result the Department of Labour has had to intervene on many of these instances.
“The law is clear on that, section nine particularly. If you look at section nine of the Health and Safety at work Act, there is no question there is a clear position. Section nine makes it specific, in fact it prohibits an employer. Section nine states that ‘no employer shall levy or permit to be levied on any employee of his, any charge in respect of anything done or provided in pursuance of any of the provisions of this act’. So the law is specific to the employer. You cannot have an employee pay for these things,” he said in an interview with Guardian Business.
“I think in most cases employers are not familiar with the law. Employers are not familiar with the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act. So once the matter is brought to the attention of the officials in the Department of Labour and the Ministry of Labour, we try to guide them towards what it says and to seek advice from their legal advisors, because the law couldn’t be more clear.”
Farquharson said while a number of complaints have been filed, instead of pushing the matters through to the courts or Industrial Tribunal, the labor authorities have sought to have the employers resolve the issues internally after consultation.
“The Department of Labour has received a number of complaints where employers are trying to force employees to pay for these tests and that’s prohibited. We are trying to advise employers, we point out to them what the law says and in most if not all of the cases, the employers have refrained from having employees pay for these tests,” he said.
“Now I suspect that there will still be some employers who will try to force their employees to take the test and if that is done, I can assure you that that matter will be before the tribunal or before the courts. Section nine of the Health and Safety at Work Act is specific to that, it prohibits an employer from having an employee be charged for that.”
Farquharson said while the National Tripartite Council has not yet taken a definitive position on the issue of employers forcing employees to get vaccinated or provide weekly negative COVID-19 tests, it has reviewed the labor laws in The Bahamas and a number of other Caribbean jurisdictions to develop a comprehensive policy position.
“Now there are some issues under the Health and Safety at Work Act, particularly section four of the act, which put a mandate on the employer to create a safe environment and he has to make sure his employees are safe and the people who are not under his employ are safe, reasonably safe,” he said.
“Now the question is, the vaccine does not guarantee that you won’t get COVID, that’s the biggest problem, nor does it guarantee that you won’t spread COVID. Now what the vaccine does is significantly reduce how you react to it and that’s a wonderful thing. All of those things are taken into consideration and those are the discussions that are going on now with the NTC. As far as the definitive position, we are only cautioning employers not to take a definitive position in trying to force an employee to take a vaccine, because we believe that situation could be before the court and they can become liable.”
Up to yesterday, approximately 60,000 Bahamian residents were vaccinated, which represents about eight percent of the population. The government has said it is running low on vaccine doses, but anticipated more being shipped to the country by the end of this month.
The post Farquharson: Employers can’t force employees to pay for COVID tests appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/farquharson-employers-cant-force-employees-to-pay-for-covid-tests/
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