Dear Atty. Kathy,
Good day. I am an employee in a manufacturing company, Company X. Due to some personal reasons, I have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19. I am grateful that my employer has been understanding about my refusal to be vaccinated. However, since we are now reporting onsite, Company X is requiring me to be tested for Covid-19 at least every 2 weeks, even when I am asymptomatic. Is this legal?
Aurora
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Dear Aurora,
Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Resolution 169, Series of 2022, dated 27 June 2022, provides the following:
In areas where there are sufficient supplies of Covid-19 vaccines as determined by the National Vaccines Operation Center, all establishments and employers in the public and private sector shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do on-site work to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Eligible employees who remain to be unvaccinated may not be terminated solely by reason thereof. However, they shall be required to undergo RT-PCR tests once every two weeks, or weekly antigen tests for purposes of onsite work.
Employees with recent Covid-19 infection within 90 days, and those with alternative working arrangements that do not require on-site reporting may be exempted from the foregoing testing requirements.
The foregoing testing requirements shall be waived for areas under Alert Level 1 classification, subject to the implementation of clinical-based management, including symptomatic testing. However, the testing requirements shall be reinstated in areas under Alert Level 2 classification or higher.
Based on the above, since you are tasked to do onsite work, you shall be required to undergo RT-PCR tests every 2 weeks, or weekly antigen tests. However, please also note that you may be exempted from the said testing requirements if you had a recent Covid-19 infection within 90 days. Also, the said testing requirements shall be waived if Company X is located in an area under Alert Level 1 classification, subject to exceptions, like symptomatic testing. But, if the area of Company X is under Alert Level 2 classification or higher, you will have to follow the testing requirements.
Atty. Kathy Larios
