Tunisia’s president orders withholding salaries of unvaccinated civil servants

While most countries opt for vaccine pass and campaigns to encourage people to get vaccinated, Tunisia’s president took a drastic decision by ordering the withholding of wages of public sector employees who have not taken Covid-19 vaccine yet.

These employees will also be banned from resuming their jobs until they get inoculated, Tunisian presidency said in an official decree.

Tunisia will also start delivering vaccine pass to citizens aged over 18 years old to facilitate access to public places.

The presidential decision has stirred resentment among Tunisia’s powerful labor union which denounced the robot like treatment the presidency gave to employees.

More than 4.2 million of Tunisians out of about 11.6 million residents have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, Tunisia’s health ministry said.

A mismanagement of the pandemic has caused a surge in deaths and infections in Tunisia last summer prompting a power grab by the President who sacked the government and suspended the parliament.