Beginning tomorrow, Monday 21 June, Lyndhurst Group will only accept back at work vaccinated individuals in recognition of the protection vaccination offers against the infectious Delta coronavirus variant.

In a statement, the company says that whilst it respects the individual rights of employees who do not wish to be vaccinated, it also needs to consider the rights of those vaccinated in view of its overall duty of care as the employer.

“The Group has not at any time forced its employees nor issued directives to vaccinate. This has been done with the best interest of our staff and their families at heart, as well as the need to protect the Lyndhurst Group Business,” the statement read.

“Exposure increases significantly when an employee is not vaccinated. When a staff is fully vaccinated, protection from the Delta variant virus increases to 92% against hospitalisation as reported by the Public Health authority in England. Failure to vaccinate has ramifications on the sustainability of the business as well as the significant legal exposure if in the event the business is found to have breached its duty of care.

“This we know is a tough call to make, but the law holds us responsible for the duty of care of all of our employees. It does so under the Ministry’s prescribed COVID-safe business protocols, and the company’s COVID19 Policy and Standard Operating Procedures have been aligned accordingly.”

To date, 60 per cent of the company’s nearly 1000 employees have been vaccinated.

On 4 June, the company organised transport to take workers to the factory to be vaccinated. It arranged further sessions twice this week for those who missed out. The company also purchased 600 smartphones for employees to download and activate the careFIJI app.

It has its workers operating in two bubbles working three days per week from Monday to Wednesday, and Thursday to Saturday respectively. These two bubbles will increase to five-day shifts with one bubble operating during the day, and the night shift for the other.