Patronage of the Coronavirus vaccines

In the interest of business sustainability, the health and safety of workers and their families, the Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA) wishes to encourage all employers to take the necessary steps to ensure high patronage of the COVID-19 vaccines which the Government has approved for use in Ghana.

The Government has set up to the third quarter of 2021 to vaccinate more than half of the Ghanaian population. Consequently, 600, 000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines have arrived to enable the country to kick-start the vaccination process.

The workplace has recently been cited as a hotspot for the spread of the virus. The arrival of the vaccines in Ghana, therefore, serve as a great opportunity for employers and businesses to eliminate the pandemic from the workplace.

There is no doubt that high patronage of the vaccines by employers and their workers will boost business confidence, ensure a healthy workforce and promote a speedy recovery of businesses and the economy from the disruptions occasioned by the pandemic.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has subjected the vaccines to thorough scientific scrutiny and has assured the nation that the vaccines are safe for use by all persons above 18 years of age and non-expecting women.

GEA, therefore, encourages employers to design robust communication strategies to promote the vaccination of their employees who may be skeptical or reluctant to take the vaccines due to inappropriate information they might have received.

Making the COVID-19 vaccination part of the workplace wellness programme will bring enormous benefits to the organization. The under-listed are some of the benefits:

• It will keep management and employees healthy by preventing the contraction of the COVID-19 virus;

• It will reduce absenteeism due to COVID-19 related illnesses;

• It will also improve the much-required productivity to ensure that the enterprise recovers rapidly from the disruptions that accompanied the outbreak of the virus;

• Finally, it will improve employees’ morale by allaying all fears and uncertainties at the workplace.

The pandemic, since its outbreak in Ghana, has had a telling effect on the activities of both employers and workers. Most employers have had to scale down or shut down their businesses in response to the various measures implemented by Government to contain the virus. This has in many ways affected the business and employment relations as well as work conditions at the workplace.

Hence, employers are reminded to continue to adhere to all the necessary COVID-19 protocols to keep the workplace safe for the conduct of business, before, during, and after the vaccination programme.

All workers are also encouraged to comply with the employers directives and policies to vaccinate the workforce of the organization.

Attention must also be paid to all directives and updates from the Ministry of Health regarding the COVID-19 vaccination process.

GEA finally urges Organized Labour to collaborate with employers to educate and sensitize workers on the need to patronize the Vaccination exercise in our collective quest to rid the workplace of the pandemic.