VACCINATE OR GET FIRED!

 By: Sylvester Raraza

Email: sylvesterraraza@gmail.com

Twitter: @Sylvester_tut

More than two years into the covid-19 pandemic, the impact of the virus’ presence is still being felt here at home and across the continent and the globe, debate continues how the South African government should handle the effects that came with this widespread disease. Thousands of people have died, millions have lost their jobs, and some are beginning to get fired from work because they refuse to vaccinate.

Some employers are starting to enforce covid-19 vaccine jabs on their employees, and those who resist getting inoculated get dismissed from work. Whether this method by employers will work or not remains to be seen. On the other hand, employees who refuse to be vaccinated will find it hard to successfully challenge their dismissals at the Commission for Conciliation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Some Twitter users' reaction to the CCMA ruling.

The CCMA has on two different occasions ruled in favour of employers who terminated the employment of employees who refused to get the jab. The first case came from an employee who was dismissed by the Goldrush Group. Theresa Mulderji took the Goldrush Group to the CCMA after she was fired for “refusing to participate in the creation of a safe working environment” and “incapacity”, and the CCMA upheld Goldrush Group’s dismissal of said employee.

The second case emanated from a ruling by the CCMA which ruled in favour of a Western Cape based law firm, Duncan Korabie Attorneys, that dismissed a clerk for refusing to vaccinate. Dale Dreyden took his employers to the CCMA but lost his case. The CCMA ordered that Dale be compensated a month’s salary because of the unfair way he was dismissed, he was informed via WhatsApp text that he must not report for duty and the CCMA found that to be unfair, that’s why it ordered that Dale be compensated. It sided with the law firm on the dismissal of the employee.

Twitter comments from some users on the CCMA ruling.

Nurses at the Pretoria North Clinic say they have been experiencing a slight increase in the number of people coming to vaccinate, and they attribute this miniscule increase to fear by employees who don’t want to lose their jobs. “They say that if it weren’t for the fact that they would lose their jobs, they would not come to vaccinate. The say it openly’’, said one nurse. South Africa is not the only country in the world having issues with citizens refusing to get vaccinated, European countries and the United States are going through the same challenges.

Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) has abandoned a court bid seeking a declaratory order from the High Court on the introduction of mandatory covid-19 vaccinations in the workplace. BUSA initiated this court bid late last year (2021) in order to help business owners and employers with the forthrightness of a court ruling when enforcing vaccine mandates. BUSA says it has seen a lot of people losing their jobs for refusing to take the vaccine, therefore a declaratory order will not be necessary.

While these debates and conversations of, ‘’to vaccinate, or not to vaccinate’’ continue, South Africa is seeing an increase in covid-19 infections. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has revealed that they have detected a new sub-variant of the already existing Omicron variant, and hence, there is an increase in infections. The Omicron variant is highly transmissible, and this is unlikely to stop because the country is fast approaching winter. The virus generally spreads faster in cold weather, and experts are predicting that a 5th wave is imminent in South Africa.