Business can demand staff are vaccinated

Ministers believe that, under laws governing health and safety at work, employers can insist that all of their staff get vaccinated against Covid.

 

Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, has dismissed the idea of "vaccine passports", which would allow employers to insist upon proof of vaccination, as "discriminatory" and "not how we do things in the UK".

 

But the issue is at the centre of a row in Cabinet with some ministers arguing in favour of the scheme, and Whitehall sources believing that current health and safety laws which require workers to protect not only themselves but also colleagues from harm will lead to a "jab for a job" stance.

 

Mr Zahawi insisted that vaccine passports would not be introduced for domestic use because they would be "discriminatory", but travellers could ask their GP for a certificate of vaccination if required by a foreign country. Some Cabinet ministers are sympathetic to the idea of vaccine passports if there is irrefutable evidence that the jabs prevent transmission, however, some Tory MPs fear any such demands triggered by the coronavirus pandemic could also be used by employers to justify demands for proof of inoculation from their employees under other circumstances.

 

The topic of discrimination on the grounds of vaccination is a highly sensitive subject as a disproportionately large percentage of Asian, black, and minority ethnic people are against getting jabbed, though employment lawyers have suggested people with strong anti-vaccination beliefs may be protected under equality laws.

 

A member of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, Steve Baker MP, said: "Vaccination passports run the risk of striking at the very heart of vaccinations being voluntary: our vaccination status must not determine our ability to live freely in our democracy."

 

A government source added that ministers had not ruled out fresh legislation to clarify health and safety laws on the subject of vaccines, and another government source said: "If someone is working in an environment where people haven't been vaccinated it becomes a public health risk. Health and safety laws say you have to protect other people at work, and when it becomes about protecting other people the argument gets stronger. If people have allergies or other reasons for not getting jabbed, then of course they should be exempt, but where it's an unjustified fear we have got to help people get into the right place."

 

Scientists and ministers agree that vaccines are the only way out of Covid restrictions, and want to make sure the maximum number of people are inoculated. More than 17 million people have now received their first dose of the vaccine, with almost 1,000 jabs per hour administered at one point.

 

As things stand at the end of February 2021 deaths, infections, and hospitalisations continue to trend downwards.

 

Earlier this year, chairman of Pimlico Plumbers Charlie Mullins said he would refuse to take on staff who would not be vaccinated and would rewrite the contracts of existing staff. Mr Zahawi said at the time that the Government did not support Mr Mullins's stance, saying "we're not that sort of country".

 

However, another government source has since said: "Given the massive success of the vaccine rollout, we shouldn't be ruling it out completely right now."

 

 

E&K Solicitors

Rusholme