IT will cost the government billions of taxpayer’s money to provide free testing for millions of unvaccinated employees to return to onsite work, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
During an online forum on Tuesday, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III disclosed he is considering recommending to President Duterte the proposal of some labor groups for the government to shoulder the required testing for unvaccinated workers.
However, he cited the expense of such an option, which, the labor chief stressed, will no longer be necessary if workers will just get voluntarily inoculated.
“For every one million unvaccinated workers, it would cost the government about P2 to 3 billion (assuming the cost is about P2,000 to P3,000), excluding expenses [if] they contract the virus,” Bello pointed out.
In a text message, Bello told the BusinessMirror he has yet to formalize his recommendation to the President.
Required testing
Under resolution 148-B of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), employees are required to get their jabs against Covid-19 to work onsite.
Those who refuse to get vaccinated will be given the option to be regularly tested for Covid-19 before they could physically report for work.
Labor groups protested the policy since it will entail considerable cost for unvaccinated workers.
They called on the government to respect the “right” of workers to decide to get vaccinated and to pay for the testing of those who refuse to do so.
Vaccination data
As of Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 32.3 million people in the A4 (workers) category have already received their first or second dose of their Covid-19 vaccine.
“This would mean that about 70 to 80 percent of workers, both formal and informal sectors, have already been vaccinated,” Bello said.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), there were 47.33 million employed and unemployed workers last October.
Bello said vaccinating most of the country’s working population will be crucial for the country’s economic and employment recovery.