Cebu City Hall's JOs may lose job if they refuse COVID-19 jab

CEBU, Philippines —  Job order workers of the Cebu City government who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 may not only miss their Christmas bonus but may lose their job in the New Year.

While there is no direct statement or directive on this yet, Mayor Michael Rama did not hesitate to give the workers a warning.

“Og di sila pa-vaccinate… unsa may mahitabo? Diba naay January? (renewal of contract). They better think about it,” the mayor said during a press conference on Friday, December 3.

Earlier, Rama said the city will not release the Christmas bonus of its employees unless everyone is vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) would issue a directive later that all establishments and employers in the public and private sector shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do on-site work to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Eligible employees who remain to unvaccinated may not be terminated solely by reason but will be required to undergo RT-PCR tests regularly at their own expense for purposes of on-site work.

Antigen tests may be resorted to when RT-PCR capacity is insufficient or not immediately available.

IATF’s Resolution 149 states that all partially vaccinated employees in the public and private sector tasked to do onsite work need not undergo regular RT-PCR test at their own expense, as long as their second dose is not yet due pursuant to the interval prescribed for the brand of vaccine received as first dose.

As for the RT-PCR tests for purposes of onsite work, its frequency shall be construed as that determined by the employer but which should be at least once every two weeks.

Unvaccinated

As of this writing, up to 8,452 employees or 85 percent of the city’s workforce are already vaccinated.

Rama found out that most of those who are unvaccinated, about 1,500 of them, are job order workers. They are assigned at various offices, including Department of Public Services, Local School Board, and even the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which is front and center in the city’s COVID response efforts.

There are reportedly 71 workers at the EOC who are unvaccinated.

EOC’s deputy chief implementer, Councilor Joel Garganera, was quick to say that the number is not updated as some of these workers have already resigned while others have been absent without official leave. Others reportedly could not get the COVID vaccine owing to pregnancy or other medical conditions.

Rama said he is serious about vaccinating not just employees of the city government but all eligible residents of the city by yearend. He has since emphasized that “vaccination is the way to liberation” against COVID-19.

The city recently conducted massive vaccination even before the National Vaccination Days. – JMO (FREEMAN)