A 61-year-old quality controller of the Lyndhurst Group of Companies was among a group of 20 garment workers who visited the Employment Ministry yesterday to register a complaint against the firm.
Kanisa Tikarukaru said she was one of many who had decided not to take the AstraZeneca jab and was instructed not to return to work.
“I was instructed by my boss not to go to work from today (Monday, June 21) if I am not vaccinated,” she said. “There is no use taking the vaccine because I am healthy.
“The company is telling me to get the injection, my question to them is – if I get the injection and get the virus, what happens then?”
Ms Tikarukaru said there were seven people in her home who were jobless and totally dependent on her.
“We are struggling. “We depend on whatever little we get from our farm and what I earn.”
Ms Tikarukaru said she would take up fishing to feed her family until things normalised and would wait it out until her boss called her back to work.
Lyndhurst Group of Companies CEO Rokoseru Nabalarua, in a statement last weekend, said they were “strongly encouraging” staff members to get vaccinated.
“This had been with the best interest of our staff and their families at heart, as well as the need to protect the Lyndhurst Group business that employs just under 1000 employees,” Mr Nabalarua said.
“While the company respects the individual rights of employees, this needs to be weighed against the rights of our staff that have been vaccinated and the overall duty of care that the employer has to ensure that all employees in the Lyndhurst Group are safe.”
