New research has found that between August 2021 and September 2021, the number of job adverts requiring workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 increased by 116%. Indeed, the policy requirement is becoming increasingly known as 'no jab no job'.
No Jab No Job
New research by Indeed Flex, who surveyed 400 HR directors, has found that being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is becoming a prerequisite for more and more jobs, as an increasing number of employers adopt a 'no jab no job' stance. They found that:-
- The number of job adverts requiring workers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 increased by 116% between August 2021 and September 2021, as more employers adopt a 'no jab no job' policy
- The proportion of jobs that made Covid-19 vaccination a prerequisite increased by 119%
- 70% of HR directors stated that their organisations will be requiring staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19, with 48% stating that those with medical exemptions will not be required to be vaccinated, whilst 22% stated that all staff will be required to be vaccinated regardless of whether they have a medical exemption or not.
- 33% of the HR directors confirmed that only fully vaccinated staff would be allowed to return to the workplace, with another 40% stating that an employees vaccination status would be an important consideration as to whether to allow them to return to the workplace. Just 15% of the HR directors stated that the vaccination status of employees would have no bearing on whether they would return to the workplace.
The Social Care Sector
From the 11th November 2021, it will be a legal requirement for all those working in care homes, whether employees, workers, or volunteers (and indeed anybody entering a care home) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, except where they are medically exempt. Moreover, this 'no jab no job' requirement is likely to be extended to all frontline NHS staff and the wider social care sector in the near future.
Other Sectors Requiring Staff To Be Fully Vaccinated
Whilst it is currently only a legal requirement for those working in care homes from the 11th November 2021 to have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the Indeed Flex survey found that many other employers in other sectors of economy are now adopting a 'no jab no job' stance by making it a prerequisite in relation to job offers re new jobs.
Commenting on 'no jab, no job' policies in relation to new jobs, the then Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, speaking back in February 2021, put forward the opinion that it was potentially legal to make it a condition of a job offer re a new job that a worker be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as it can be written into the employee's contract of employment. Nevertheless, this view has never been tested at Tribunal/court, and nobody could say with certainty whether this view would be found to be right or wrong short of a Tribunal/Court ruling. Certainly, any clause within the contract could potentially be open to challenge, as being discriminatory or unfair.
Making it mandatory for existing staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 would be even more problematic for employers, as they would be opening themselves up to potential claims for unfair or constructive dismissal, and discrimination claims in relation to disability and religious/philisophical beliefs.
Legislation
The Government brought in new legislation to make it mandatory for those working in care homes (unless exempted) from the 11th November 2021 to have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. That 'no jab no job' legal requirement is likely to be extended to frontline NHS workers and the wider social care sector in the near future. Nevertheless, with over 100 people a day still dying from Covid-19 and that number likely to rise during the winter ahead, there may well be calls upon the Government to extend the policy even further through legislation.
In the meantime, individual employers are faced with a high risk situation. On the one hand, if they introduce a mandatory 'no jab, no job' policy compelling employees to get themselves fully vaccinated, then they face potential claims from unvaccinated employees for unfair dismissal and discrimination. On the other hand, where they do not introduce such a policy, then they open themselves up to legal action from employees, members of the public, and from the estates of the deceased, who are able to show that on the balance of probabilities that they or the deceased caught Covid-19 from an unvaccinated employee.
