Covid jab made mandatory for chainstores workforce

LAHORE: Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP) has made it mandatory for all its members to get their workers vaccinated to keep the economy moving and continue working in their respective brands

CAP made this decision after sensitising the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) to prioritise the retail sector for vaccination so the sector could continue its economic activities.

The NCOC endorsed the idea of vaccinating the retail workforce, following which CAP plans to launch the vaccination drive from Lahore in collaboration with the provincial government of Punjab. The drive would be spread across Pakistan in collaboration with provincial governments and local administration.

Talking to The News, CAP Chairman Tariq Mehboob said they were in close liaison with the NCOC and the provincial governments for Covid-19 vaccinations of its workforce.

“This is an outcome of the recent meeting of CAP officials with NCOC officials, in which CAP explained the importance of the vaccinating young people alongside with older ones for economic revival and stability in the country,” he added.

Both the government and industry officials want to keep the wheel of economy moving without lockdowns. Further, the CAP also requested the government and NCOC to keep the stakeholders, especially chambers, organised and registered retail sector and major associations in the loop during decision-making related to lockdown and economic revival, he added.

Mehboob informed that CAP shared the data of thousands of its members’ employees with commissioner Lahore. It has also principally agreed that the employees of the CAP members would be vaccinated without any age discrimination.

Currently, CAP has more than 200 members with over 20,000 stores and above 200,000 employees across Pakistan. Majority of CAP members’ workforce, almost 95 percent, falls in the age bracket of 18-32 years.

Thus, CAP considers it of utmost importance that the retail sector’s workers get vaccinated without any age restrictions. CAP recently sensitised the NCOC about prioritising the important sectors of the economy and people of those selected sectors should be vaccinated irrespective of age categorisations.

Further, the CAP also decided to give discounts to the vaccinated customers at their members stores across Pakistan, CAP chairman said, adding that “brands are working on discount offers which will also be announced alongside launch of the vaccination drive”.

To increase awareness, CAP members are also running extensive campaigns for Covid-19 vaccination in-store and on social media platforms of their stores. In the later stage, CAP would also ask allied sectors to vaccinate their workforce in order to keep working with the registered retail sector.

Mehboob said that once workforces in various sectors got vaccinated on priority, the government would be better able to manage lockdowns with lesser impact on the economy and business. “The vaccinated sector could be divided into zones and could operate even in the pandemic,” he added.