Cosatu plans to challenge mandatory Covid-19 vaccination at a ‘national, policy level’ and says it wants companies that have dismissed workers for non-compliance to reinstate them, reports BusinessLIVE.

Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator, Matthew Parks, said that while the labour federation supports the vaccination mandate against Covid-19, it cannot support the dismissal of any workers in a country of 60m where only about 14m people are employed.

Parks said there is a ‘diversity of views’ among the union affiliates of Cosatu, many of whom regard mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policies as ‘polarising’.

He added that while it is up to the individual unions affiliated to Cosatu to take up the matter ‘on the ground’ with various companies or sectors that have instituted mandatory Covid-19 vaccination in the workplace, Cosatu would be lobbying for reinstatement of workers dismissed for non-compliance with mandatory vaccination at a ‘national, policy level’.

‘Cosatu supports the vaccine rollout programme and ... we believe that education and addressing the fears of workers and society is the best way to persuade people to vaccinate,’ it said yesterday, according to a Business Day report.

‘Threatening and dismissing workers only serves to poison what has already become a very charged and divided debate across the world.’ 

The report suggests Cosatu’s response may be the first salvo in a broader worker-led war against mandatory workplace vaccination. It follows the recent CCMA ruling that suggests such policies may be unlawful.

‘The federation calls on all workers who have been dismissed to approach their unions and lodge grievances with the CCMA and Labour Courts,’ Cosatu said.

‘SA is a constitutional democracy, and this means that we need sober employers to work with stakeholders to resolve complex and sensitive matters. Dismissing workers who have fears only serves to create divisions.’

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