No jab, no job?

Controversial founder of Pimlico Plumbers, Charlie Mullins, coined the ‘No jab, no job’ phrase this week, insisting that all of his employees must get a Coronavirus vaccine. He’s not the first business owner to take that stance, but it’s one that could become a hot topic in the coming months.

• As an employer, it’s going to be far easier to plan if you know that the chances of your employees falling ill are lower.
• If you’re reliant on bringing the public into your premises, or on your team visiting them, to be able to confidently declare that they’ve had the vaccine, you could make a big difference to sales.
• Without your team having had a vaccine, will you have to keep social distancing measures in place, or keep people working from home for longer periods?

‘No jab, no job’ suddenly seems sensible, but will it be simple to implement?

It’s highly likely that employment lawyers will quickly argue that this would be discriminatory. Human rights lawyers could claim an abuse of the most basic of rights, that of choice. This becomes more complicated if a claim can be made that the vaccine was against religious beliefs.

Can it be argued that a choice can be made, but that there could be consequences of that choice? You already have to choose for some countries whether to have the right jabs, or whether you stay away. Is this that different? It’s all choice…

I’m not about to give an answer here, or even an opinion! It’s a very new area of consideration and one that is going to get very messy.

It is definitely one to think about if you have a team, or are considering recruitment in the future. It might also be one to talk to your HR advisor about, sooner rather than later, to check what you may already have in your contracts.

As the vaccine is rolled out to the working population you may well need to have a considered stance in mind.