52,000 workers still without jabs; 6,700 of them are 60 and above

Around 52,000 employees in Singapore have not taken any Covid-19 vaccine, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said yesterday.

Around 6,700 are aged 60 and above, and are at a very high risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19 infection, it added.

It noted that only a small proportion of these workers are medically ineligible for vaccination.

Meanwhile, 98 per cent of the workforce - excluding self-employed persons - have been inoculated.

As at Dec 19, 80 per cent of companies have attained full vaccine coverage for their workforce.

This is considerable progress, MOM said, as it marks a drop from the 75,000 employees who were not vaccinated as at Dec 5.

The updates come in the wake of the Ministry of Health's (MOH) announcement on Sunday that unvaccinated employees will not be allowed to return to the workplace from Jan 15.

This rule stands, even if they test negative for Covid-19 24 hours beforehand.

Those certified to be medi-cally ineligible for vaccination or who have recovered from Covid-19 within 180 days are allowed to return.

Those who are partially inoculated can go to the workplace, but with a negative pre-event testing result, up to Jan 31. After Jan 31, they must be fully vaccinated.

From Jan 1, 50 per cent of employees who can work from home will be allowed to return to the office, MOH said on Dec 14.

 

The ministry said yesterday: "We have seen the emergence of the more transmissible Omicron variant, which with the Delta variant, significantly raises the chance of contracting Covid-19 compared with a year ago.

 

"Unvaccinated employees, especially those who are older, will put immense strain on our healthcare capacity in the coming months if they contract Covid-19."

There is a grace period from Jan 1 to Jan 14 when unvaccinated staff can go to the workplace if they have a negative pre-event test result.

MOM said: "A fully vaccinated workforce will be able to operate more safely and at much lower risk to employees' lives.

"We must also be prepared to take stronger steps to protect those who, due to medical reasons, cannot receive any vaccine."

For employees who remain unvaccinated, MOM said emplo-yers may allow them to work from home if such arrangements can sufficiently meet their business needs.

"However, as the vast majority of vaccinated employees eventually return to the workplace more frequently, the prolonged absence of the unvaccinated employees... may affect their individual performance as well as negatively impact team or organisational performance," MOM said.

From Jan 15, workers who have to be on-site but are unvaccinated can be redeployed to suitable roles that can be done from home, it added. They can also be placed on no-pay leave based on mutually agreed terms.

As a last resort, their employment can be terminated with notice according to their contract.

Such termination is not considered as wrongful dismissal because it is due to the employees' inability to be at the workplace to do their contracted duties.

For those who are medically ineligible for vaccines, MOM said employers should consider measures to protect them, even though they are allowed to work on-site.

These include allowing them to work from home if they can, or redeploying them to suitable roles that can be done remotely.

Singapore Manufacturing Federation president Douglas Foo said: "If it is because of medical reasons (that workers are not vaccinated), firms will then have to consider how best to retrain these employees to allow them to work remotely."

MOM concluded: "The tripartite partners would also like to urge the remaining 2 per cent of unvaccinated employees to go for vaccination as soon as possible to protect their well-being and avoid any impact to their jobs and livelihoods."