St. Vincent and the Grenadines (iWitness News) – The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union says it has not filed any legal challenge to the vaccine mandate but is ready to do so immediately if the government gives dismissal letters to unvaccinated educators.
“… if you look at the threats that were being made all along, you were telling us that separation day is the 19th [of November] — the deadline was the 19th and then you had 10 days, [after] which you [it] would be deemed to have abandoned your job.
“So we were expecting after that, then the next step would have been for them to fire the teachers,” Andrew John, industrial relations and research officer (IRRO) at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union told the media on Wednesday.
He, however, noted that this has not happened, but rather, the government has been saying that teachers should not go onto school campuses unless they are vaccinated.
“And we’re saying the proceedings, a large part of it would be on the firing of teachers. Because definitely, you have to protect the jobs of teachers, you have to protect teachers’ rights, and firing on some trumped up charge would fly in the face of the collective agreement that we have. It will fly in the face of the Public Service Orders and all of that,” John said.
According to a law passed by Cabinet that came into effect on Nov. 19, “frontline” workers had a 10-day grade period in which to take at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine if they did not receive a religious or medical exemption.
