JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra clarified on Wednesday that there is still no law that requires mandatory Covid-19 vaccination for job applicants prior to employment.
Guevarra issued the statement in response to calls of some business groups to allow them not to hire job seekers who refuse to get vaccinated against the virus.
The justice chief said people should give attention to Section 12 of the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 that could shed light on the request of some business and industry groups to allow them to restrict the movements of persons who have not yet been vaccinated.
Section 12 states that “…that the vaccine cards shall not be considered as an additional mandatory requirement for educational, employment and other similar government transaction purposes.”
He also mentioned that the Department of Labor and Employment had earlier issued some policy guidelines on the matter. Guevarra said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) might tackle the issue for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases in coming days.
The business groups earlier released a statement expressing their support to government’s mass vaccination efforts as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19 and to help in the recovery of the economy.
“While we also steadfastly believe that everyone has the right to decide on vaccination, we do believe that the state and the private sector should be able to restrict the activities of unvaccinated persons for the common good,” they said.