A COVID-19 mandate for all frontline workers in St Vincent and the Grenadines went into effect at midnight on Friday, 19 November 2021.
The vaccine mandate requires that all frontline workers be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
According to the order, any frontline worker who turns up for work today (Friday 19 November) can be charged for misconduct.
Industrial Action At SVG’s Community College
At the time of this publication, the lecturers and other workers at the Department of Technical and Vocational Education of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College were engaged in industrial action.
The staff have cited several reasons for their decision:
Non-existence of a Pension Plan which should have been implemented since 2007.
No reclassification of employees.
Mandatory Vaccination of employees.
No provision for severance of employees.
No clarity of employees’ status (whether they are Public Servants or statutory employees).
Poor working conditions.
In a release on Thursday 18 November, the Public Service Union said they wrote to the Director of the SVGCC (letter dated 16 November 2021) outlining the workers’ concerns and requested a meeting to discuss the same.
The Director, in his response, addressed the issues but did not refer to the facilitation of a meeting.
The union said workers are not satisfied with the Director’s failure to meet with the PSU and staff and have decided to withdraw their services.
The decision as to whether the industrial action will be continued in the upcoming week will be determined at the end of Friday, the union’s release said.
Front line workers, according to the Public Health Act, includes;
All health care workers.
Police officers.
Prison and customs officers.
Teachers.
Permanent Secretaries.
All heads of departments and Chief Technical officers.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union boss Oswald Robinson in a message to teachers on Tuesday, 25 October, described the vaccine mandate as a “Staged Crisis” and urged the educators to stand their ground.
On Thursday, 18 November, Commissioner of Police Colin John said that of the 1100 law enforcement officers, 1004 had been vaccinated.
There have been several protests in St Vincent over vaccine mandates, including one on 5 August, which left Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves with a head wound, from which he has recovered.
This article will be updated.
