[ 2021-02-17 ]

No jabs, no jobs
No jabs, no jobs: UK companies look to make
Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory

Law firms say businesses are considering making
jabs a condition of employment

London (UK) – 17 Feb 2021 – FT - British
companies are looking to draw up “no jab, no
job” contracts for employees, as the government
admitted that it was “up to businesses” if
they wanted workers or customers to hold
coronavirus vaccination passports.

Law firms said some companies, ranging from UK
care-home operators to large multinational groups,
were considering employment contracts requiring
new and existing staff to have vaccinations once
Britain’s adult population has been offered
jabs.

Boris Johnson, prime minister, has said the
government will not introduce domestic vaccine
passports — an idea that raises many moral and
legal issues — but on Tuesday Nadhim Zahawi,
vaccines minister, acknowledged that some
companies might press ahead with their own
schemes.

“It’s up to businesses what they do, but we
don’t yet have the evidence of the effect of
vaccines on transmission,” Zahawi told the BBC.
He had previously warned that the use of domestic
vaccine passports would be “wrong”.

Ministers are deeply uneasy because they fear that
such passports could lead to discrimination
against people who cannot, or will not, receive a
Covid-19 jab. They want to avoid any impression
that people are being coerced into getting a
vaccine.

The government is not planning to outlaw the use
of domestic vaccine passports by companies, but
officials expect the use of such documents to be
tested in the courts.

“Companies must ensure their business practices
are legal and don’t discriminate against
customers or employees,” said one government
official.

Barchester Healthcare, which runs more than 200
care homes, has said it will not hire new staff
who refuse the Covid-19 vaccine on non-medical
grounds. Pimlico Plumbers has also announced a
“no jab, no job” policy for new recruits.

Law firms, which declined to be named, said some
companies were also looking at requiring existing
employees to have coronavirus jabs.

Most employers are wary of any mandatory
requirement for staff to be vaccinated, which
would mean handling sensitive medical data, and
could leave them open to legal challenges on
discrimination grounds if workers refused jabs
because of a religious belief, pregnancy, or a
health condition that could constitute a
disability.

The CBI business group said there was no case for
compulsion, adding that businesses were
“committed to doing everything they could to
inform and engage their employees on the benefits
of the vaccine”. The CBI said that rapid, mass
Covid-19 testing was the key to making workplaces
safer.

“The UK government hasn’t made the vaccine
compulsory, so neither can employers,” said
Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD
organisation for HR professionals. “Nor should
they be restricting people coming into work based
on whether they have had the vaccine.”

The CIPD said members in various sectors including
care, dentistry and food manufacturing were asking
how to handle situations where staff refused
vaccinations.

One City of London lawyer said the introduction of
clauses in employment contracts requiring workers
to have vaccinations would be risky, because of
the possibility of discrimination claims, but were
more likely to be defensible in sectors such as
care because of the prevalence of vulnerable
patients.

Another City lawyer said some multinational
groups, including one large energy company, were
considering such clauses.

James Davies, partner at law firm Lewis Silkin,
said any company seeking to amend workers’
current contracts would have to first gain consent
— a step not necessary for new hires.

The UK events industry has been quickest to grasp
the potential for vaccine passports or rapid
testing as a way to restart mass gatherings.

“As an industry we will consider any route that
gets our doors open again safely and are focused
on working with the government to make that
possible after nearly a year of closure,” said
Greg Parmley, chief executive of Live, the live
music sector trade body.

The wedding sector has offered itself up as a
guinea pig for trialling vaccine passports as a
means of allowing events to take place.

But others in the hospitality industry are
critical of the idea, including trade body
UKHospitality.

Several companies working on vaccine passports for
international travel said their technologies were
suitable for UK employers.

In January, biometrics company iProov and cyber
security group Mvine began trialling their
Covid-19 passport, with a £75,000 investment from
Innovate UK, a government agency that funds
business and research collaborations.

Source - FT, UK

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