Country bans unvaccinated from offices

The Republic of Singapore has officially banned unvaccinated employees from working in person, removing a previous policy that allowed them to work if they provided negative Covid-19 tests.

The ban was implemented on Saturday as part of Singapore’s ‘Phase 2’ plan for the workforce and will mean that many unvaccinated workers who are unable to perform their duties from home could soon be fired.

From Saturday, “only employees who are fully vaccinated, certified to be medically ineligible or have recovered from Covid-19 within 180 days, can return to the workplace,” Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower declared. It warned that those unvaccinated employees who do not fall into any of the exempt categories “will not be allowed to return to the workplace” even if they provide a negative test.

Businesses have been advised to assign unvaccinated employees duties which can be performed from home or to place them on unpaid leave. However, if a company determines that there is no way it can accommodate an unvaccinated employee, it can fire them without any ramifications.

“If termination of employment is due to employees’ inability to be at the workplace to perform their contracted work, such termination of employment would not be considered as wrongful dismissal,” the government said.

Those who are only partially vaccinated will be allowed to remain in the workplace until January 31 if they continue to provide negative Covid-19 test results. After that date, however, they will face the same restrictions as the unvaccinated.

Unvaccinated people are already banned from restaurants and many stores in Singapore. The city-state is one of the most-vaccinated places on Earth, boasting an 82.86% vaccination rate. In December, the government reported that some 52,000 employees were yet to take their first Covid-19 shot, noting that only a “small proportion” among them qualified for medical exemptions.