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Cathay Pacific sacked crew members. How are other Hong Kong firms convincing staff to get jabbed?
- Employers who have managed to get all staff vaccinated say incentives and allaying fears worked in minimising resistance
- Labour group reveals it has received a rising number of requests for help from hotel, catering and retail workers facing demands to get jabs
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More Hong Kong businesses are making it compulsory for staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19, even as unions and the equality watchdog are warning employers to tread carefully or they could be at risk of breaching the city’s anti-discrimination laws.
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In the wake of flagship airline Cathay Pacific’s revelation last week it had sacked a “small number” of aircrew for failing to be inoculated, employers who managed to get all their staff vaccinated said incentives and allaying fears worked in minimising resistance.
Still, a major labour union revealed it had received an increasing number of requests for help from hotel, catering and retail employees facing demands by their employers to get the jabs.
On Monday, Ricky Chu Man-kin, chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), said differences in the way the airline’s staff were treated could be regulated under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance depending on each case, and health-related concerns could be a valid explanation for not getting jabbed. He added that mediation, as well as legal action, could be possible if staff were deemed to have a valid case.
Confederation of Trade Unions’ chief executive Mung Siu-tat, who declined to give the actual number of complaints, said one case received in the past few days involved a hotel employee who had a medical certificate as proof against vaccination.
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