Businesses in the UK are reported to be drafting “no jab, no job” contracts for employees after the vaccines minister said it was “up to businesses what they do”.
Law firms said that businesses such as care home operators are already thinking about requiring their staff to have a Covid vaccine once they have been offered to all adults in the UK. However, there are concerns about whether this requirement would discriminate against people who are unable to, or choose not to receive, a Covid vaccine, especially considering the low take-up rate amongst those in the BAME community.
Pimlico Plumbers has already announced a “no jab, no job” policy for new recruits, with Barchester Healthcare rumoured to have implemented a similar policy for hiring new staff. In an article for the Business Leader in January, Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins said: “It’s obvious that vaccination is the way out of the Covid crisis, and I think that there will soon be a strong argument for allowing businesses to open up to those who can prove they have been inoculated against Covid.
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In an interview with BBC News, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, said: “It’s up to businesses what they do, but we don’t yet have the evidence of the effect of vaccines on transmission.” The Prime Minister has indicated that he wants to emphasise the importance of mass vaccination and rapid testing instead of making it a mandatory requirement for people to have a Covid jab in order to access jobs and services.
Talking about the idea of a domestic “vaccine passport”, Boris Johnson said “we will look at everything” but he emphasised: “What we are thinking of at the moment is more of a route that relies on mass vaccination – we intend to vaccinate all of the adults in the country by the autumn – plus lateral flow testing.”
Rapid tests would help “the toughest nuts to crack” such as nightclubs and theatres which were shut last year. He added: “I think that will be the route that we go down and that businesses will go down. You are already seeing lots of business using the potential of rapid, on-the-day testing as well. I think that, in combination with vaccination, will probably be the route forward.”
The number of people infected with Covid-19 in the UK, where most restrictions have been lifted, is approaching record levels in relative indifference, according to estimates published on Friday 25 March.
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