Unvaccinated teachers under stress in SVG
Teachers in St Vincent and the Grenadines who are unvaccinated are being placed under immense pressure, according to reports reaching the SVG Teachers’ Union.
The union’s Industrial Relations Officer Andrew John shared testimonials of the hardships being faced by unvaccinated teachers during a media conference today.
John says the union is mourning the death of one of their colleagues who passed away yesterday. An autopsy is to be conducted to determine his cause of death.
In a separate incident, John says one of their members who was attached to a private government-assisted secondary school received a dismissal letter with immediate effect, was not paid a severance nor paid for part of the week which he worked.
The woes continue to build up as a teacher because of his religious beliefs and who believes he should not take the vaccine, is being threatened with job loss.
The Industrial Relations Officer says even though teachers have documented issues with doctors for deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins, they are not being granted medical exemptions.
“The number of exemptions granted to teachers can be counted on one hand. Our teachers are between a rock and a hard place; why are we doing this to our teachers?
Especially at this blessed time of the year when we see people are trying to get their Christmas spirit up.”
Continuing with the hardships being faced, John says one teacher went to the bank to refinance their loan and was turned away because the bank asked for a job letter and a vaccination card.
In another instance, a teacher went to school to do assessments but the students were removed from her classroom due to her vaccination status.
The SVG Teachers’ Union says there are also cases where teachers are not allowed to mark the register and are prohibited from marking exams or assessment papers.
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