Some employers are introducing ‘no jab, no job’ contracts for workers

Some UK businesses are said to be drawing up ‘no jab, no job’ contracts for employees after being told ‘it’s up them’.

Law firms told the Financial Times that businesses such as care home operators are considering requiring their staff to have the vaccine once it is available to all adults in the UK.

Pimlico Plumbers has already announced a ‘no jab, no job’ policy for new recruits, while Barchester Healthcare has also revealed a similar policy for new staff.

Writing in 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.”

Concerns have been raised about whether such a requirement could lead to discrimination against people who cannot or chose not to have the vaccine.

It follows after vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi told BBC news: “It’s up to businesses what they do, but we don’t yet have the evidence of the effect of vaccines on transmission.”

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson suggested that he wants to focus on mass vaccination and rapid resting rather than making the jab a mandatory requirement. 

When asked about the idea of a vaccine passport within the UK, he said: “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.”

He stressed that the rapid tests would help ‘the toughest nuts to crack’ including nightclubs and theatres.

He said: “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.”

UK Cinema Association (UKCA) chief executive, Phil Clapp said requiring a receipt of a jab presents a ‘range of practical and legal problems’.

He told the PA news agency: “The use of vaccine passports, in particular, presents a range of practical and legal problems.

“At this moment in time, and in the medium term, of course, the ongoing rollout of the vaccine makes this impractical, but even when that programme is complete, there will be a number of groups of who will not have been vaccinated for a range of legitimate reasons – some people with disabilities, pregnant women and young people amongst them.

“Making the proof of vaccination a condition of entry would open up cinemas (as it would other venues) to a host of possible claims for discrimination.”

The UK government confirmed that those who refuse the vaccine cannot be fired as this would be ‘discriminatory’.

Speaking in early February about if the government were considering vaccine passports, Zahawi said: “No, we’re not. One, we don’t know the impact of the vaccines on transmission.

“Two, it would be discriminatory and I think the right thing to do is to make sure that people come forward to be vaccinated because they want to rather than it be made in some way mandatory through a passport.

“If other countries obviously require some form of proof, then you can ask your GP because your GP will hold your records and that will then be able to be used as your proof you’ve had the vaccine.

“But we are not planning to have a passport in the UK.”