Bank workers should be given priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the General Workers Union.

Malta’s largest labour union argued that because bank employees’ work involves constant contact with people, their chances of contracting COVID-19 is high. Therefore they should be bumped up the list for inoculation, especially if they have vulnerable family members.

“The GWU understands that everyone wants to be first in line to be vaccinated, but as a union, it’s our duty to fight for what our members need,” it wrote in a statement.

This is the latest proposal from the union to support its members amid the pandemic. Yesterday, it called for subsidies for remote workers to ensure they aren’t left with costs their employers would otherwise have to pay.

This would include part of workers’ rent, electricity bills, installation costs for telephone lines, WiFi, VPNs and air conditioning.

More than 4,000 people have been inoculated so far, starting healthcare workers, vulnerable people, people over 85 and care home workers.

However, health students working on the frontlines are still pending answers on when they’ll be vaccinated, despite working directly with coronavirus patients in hospitals.

Malta has so far acquired vaccines of Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna, with the aim to vaccinate all vulnerable people and front liners by May and achieve herd immunity by September.

Yesterday, AstraZeneca and Oxford submitted applications to the EU for authorisation of their own vaccines against the coronavirus. If approved, Malta will receive over a million doses of it, boosting the country’s pace of vaccination drastically.

Do you think bank workers should get priority for the vaccine? Comment below