Retailers warn of impossibility to vaccinate 60% of employees on time

Food suppliers and retailers asked the Moscow City Hall to extend the mandatory vaccination period for employees by a month, as 60% of employees do not have time to vaccinate.In some companies, the number of vaccinated does not exceed 17%

The Rusbrand Association (representing Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company and others) sent an appeal to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, asking him to postpone the mandatory vaccination of employees against CORONAVIRUS by a month. This is reported by Kommersant with reference to the letter.

In mid-June, in Moscow, due to an increase in the incidence of coronavirus, mandatory vaccination of 60% of employees in the service sector, including catering, trade, beauty salons, and so on, was announced. According to Sobyanin's decree, until July 15, Muscovites need to get the first vaccine against covid-19 , and before August 15 - the second.

In the letter, Rusbrand notes that the registration for vaccination has stretched until August, and "the number of available vaccines is noticeably reduced." The association points out that suppliers and grocery retailers do not have time to vaccinate the required number of employees with the first component of the vaccine or the single-component drug before the prescribed deadline, and asks for an extension until August 15.

The authorities of Moscow called the consequences for workers who refused to be vaccinated Society

As an alternative, Rusbrand proposes not to punish companies that fail to meet the requirements of the city hall until August 15, said Alexei Popovichev, executive DIRECTOR of the association. Andrei Zlobin, general director of the H-Clinc clinic, told the newspaper that since last week the capital's HEALTH department had stopped shipping vaccine to private clinics, and they had to suspend registration for vaccination. The lack of vaccines is not observed in all medical institutions, but in some of them the waiting period for vaccinations has increased to three weeks. Waiting times have also increased at vaccination stations, a market source said. The Department of Health did not respond to the publication's request.

PepsiCo acknowledged that there are difficulties in meeting the deadlines for vaccinating staff. The company added that the mayor's office could organize mobile teams to large industrial facilities. So far, according to a Kommersant source in a large manufacturer, the percentage of those vaccinated in some companies in the consumer sector does not exceed 17%.

Yandex Go noted that the two vaccination centers for labor migrants operating in Moscow are not enough for the rapid pace of the campaign. The Delivery Club also indicated the need to open new points for couriers.

Moscow authorities announced fines for companies for failure to vaccinate Society

At some Lenta outlets, the number of vaccinated employees is approaching 60%, but vaccination is slower than desired, the retailer said. Shokoladnitsa and the Prime network said that the number of vaccinated exceeded 50%.

Employers who fail to ensure that their employees are vaccinated could be fined or suspended for up to three months. As reported by the HEAD of the Main Control Directorate Evgeny Danchikov, in Moscow the fine for non-compliance with vaccination requirements will be up to 1 million rubles, for individual entrepreneurs - 50 thousand rubles. However, later in the capital's operational headquarters they said that the Moscow authorities, due to the unfavorable epidemic situation, would not ask the COURT to fine the companies, but would only demand to close the organization for up to 90 days.