The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) says the aim of its COVID-19 Rollout Campaign Industry Framework Agreement is to ensure that workers get vaccinated.
The agreement was concluded on Wednesday with all of the five clothing industry employer associations, which are party to the clothing industry’s bargaining council. It comes as criticism mounts against the government for its slow vaccine rollout programme.
The union’s Membinkosi Vilina says, under the agreement, they will coordinate with stakeholders regarding the encouragement of the entire population to be vaccinated.
Vilina says, “In whatever the facilities that we have in the industry, and even the government has made it clear that if we have the facility in a particular place, even the general population of the country that is close to those areas will be given an opportunity to go there to be vaccinated. It must be voluntary, with us making sure that we don’t force people to get the vaccine, but to encourage people to do so.”
Government now plans to vaccinate 22 million people between November this year and February 2022. Its previous target was to vaccinate 67 percent of the population by the end of the year.
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