“Refusing unvaccinated workers to enter worksite premises is patently illegal and Marcosian, Roland dela Cruz, National Congress of Unions in the Sugar of the Philippines (NACUSIP) president, said Monday, November 29.
“We are warning the Department of Labor and Employment and the Civil Service Commission that illegal dismissal cases will flood your offices as well as notice of strikes and work stoppages will be implemented nationwide unless this inhumane, dictatorial, anti-worker and anti-Filipino policy of the IATF is withdrawn,” he said.
Resolutions No. 148 and No. 149 dated November 12 and 18 issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), ordered all establishments and employers to require their employees who must report in person to be vaccinated, Dela Cruz said. However, the Department of Labor and Employment in a press briefing indicated that DOLE will no longer issue a labor advisory on the IATF policy, he added.
This cowardly response by DOLE by not issuing a labor advisory on the IATF Resolutions that will adversely affect the security of tenure, income and rights of workers to be gainfully employed is a clear manifestation that the Labor department is not 100 percent or all-out on this drastic and unconscionable policy of the IATF, dela Cruz said.
The unavailability of vaccines, religious beliefs, the incoherent local government vaccine policies as well as the failure of government to clearly send the message of the importance of Covid-19 vaccination to workers and the Filipino population in general are the major reasons why many Filipinos are unvaccinated at this point in time, he added.*