Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said, as head of the civil service, he would not be requiring mandatory vaccinations for Caymanian civil servants, including frontline workers, but provisions may be put in place mandating vaccines for non-Caymanian civil servants.
Speaking during a debate into bills that mandate vaccines for expatriates and visitors, Manderson said that he would be looking at revising the Public Service Management Act to require non-Caymanian public service employees who are newly hired or renewing their contracts to be vaccinated.
The bills debated in Parliament on Monday and Tuesday relate to non-Caymanians renewing or being granted work permits, as well as several other categories of individuals living on island or seeking permission to reside here.
Manderson said he felt Cayman should not have “two separate systems, where the private sector is treated one way and persons in the civil service treated another way”.
Frontline workers
He added that, despite being concerned that frontline workers, including many in Travel Cayman and the Customs and Border Control department who deal with incoming travellers daily, were not vaccinated, there were no plans in the civil service to require those workers to be mandatorily vaccinated.
The deputy governor acknowledged that vaccination levels within those frontline units were “low”.
“However,” he said, “I think, listening to the elected leaders where they said they don’t support forcing Caymanians to be vaccinated, and while the terms and conditions of the civil service is a matter for His Excellency [Governor Martyn Roper] and myself, we are certainly not going to push forward legislation as serious as this without the support of my colleagues in Cabinet.”
He added that this did not mean that he was not worried about Caymanian frontline workers “putting themselves and their families and colleagues at serious risk when they are not vaccinated” while, in the line of their work, they are being exposed to potentially COVID-positive individuals.
He urged those who were “dogmatic” in their refusal to take the vaccine not to forward Youtube videos or social media posts from unknown people to their friends and colleagues and try to influence them not to get vaccinated.
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“He added that, despite being concerned that frontline workers, including many in Travel Cayman and the Customs and Border Control department who deal with incoming travellers daily, were not vaccinated, there were no plans in the civil service to require those workers to be mandatorily vaccinated.” Finally an admission by the CIG. Doesn’t sound like much of a plan for safely reopening. And by the way, as a vaccinated traveler, these unvaccinated frontline workers are a risk to me.
All these Government employees in various Govt Departments and SAGC’s comprise a large proportion of our total workforce. It seems they have a low overall vaccination rate and are therefore largely to blame for our failure in reaching the 80% vaccination rate, and the problems arising therefrom. Mandatory vaccination including Caymanians without which dismissal will result, is the answer. For too long the Civil Service, with it’s biggest voting bloc has got it’s own way with successive Governments, now is the time for the piper to pay up.
Health-conscious tourists and workers likely will prefer destinations they perceive as healthy and avoid destinations perceived as less protective of tourists and workers. Cayman Islands were on the way to become a preferred healthier destination because of its strong efforts to keep out covid. But, like 24 Sep letter to editor “All Airport Staff Should be Vaccinated” says, allowing unvaccinated vaccine-eligible airport and front-line tourism workers detracts from making Cayman healthier.
Approved regulations and announced policies favoring anti-vaxxers may have unintended consequences negatively affecting tourism, working in Cayman, and attraction of owning Cayman property. Do anti-vaxxers really want this?
I cannot understand why the Civil Service employees and frontline workers would not be strongly encouraged to get vaccinated when the Cayman Islands Government is mandating certain sections of the community MUST be vaccinated.
This would indicate to me that Government aren’t putting as much emphasis on vaccination as they are legislating.
Lots of double standards!!!