The AMS is in the early stages of implementing a rapid testing program for staff members who are unvaccinated or did not declare their vaccination status to the society.
Since last term, the AMS has been working toward implementing a vaccine mandate for its employees, but has faced legal and logistical challenges. President Cole Evans said the focus of a new mandate would be the society’s non-student employees, given that student staff are already subject to UBC’s vaccination declaration and rapid testing program.
The first step was to survey staff to see how many are vaccinated and how many would support a vaccine mandate.
The society sent out an anonymous form to its employees in November 2021. According to Evans, 95 employees filled out the survey, with 87 employees saying they are fully vaccinated, 1 employee declaring they are partially vaccinated and 7 employees choosing not to declare their vaccination status.
However, Evans could not provide a solid number of how many people the AMS employs, due to fluctuations and the society’s difficulty filling positions during the pandemic. He estimated that the survey respondents make up one third to one half of the AMS’s current employees.
Additionally, the survey did not ask respondents to specify whether they were student or non-student staff. In a follow-up email to The Ubyssey, Evans wrote that less than 25 per cent of respondents worked in services or as executive support staff, “which means we can assume that a good chunk (likely over 50%) of respondents are non-student staff.”
Of those who are assumed to not be fully vaccinated, 35 per cent stated they plan on getting fully vaccinated and 53 per cent chose not to respond, while the other 12 per cent are not planning on getting fully vaccinated.
As for staff support of a mandate, 69.4 per cent of respondents said they would support a vaccination policy while 13 per cent said they were unsure or would rather not say. Eighteen per cent said they would not be in support of a mandate, according to Evans.
Eighty per cent of survey respondents stated that “they would feel safer at work if they knew all staff [were] vaccinated.”
While the survey is a step toward a policy, logistical challenges remain. The AMS would need to set up a system to track employees’ health data and obtain rapid tests.
“We have to be able to set up some sort of program … which is a big challenge for an organization … [that doesn’t] have the same labour-power as UBC does,” Evans said.
He added that the AMS hasn’t reached the point to do a “full sitdown” with its legal counsel yet to ensure the policy can be implemented.
“I think we would get to that point once we have gone through the process of talking with our different unions in the organization as well as figuring out some of those logistical challenges as well,” Evans said.
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