Frettens investigate can an employer require you to take the COVID vaccine?
Can an employer force staff to be vaccinated?
In the sense of physically restraining them and forcibly performing the vaccination, no. Under current UK law, nobody is permitted to force an individual to undergo medical treatment (including having vaccinations) against their will and under existing legislation the Government is also denied that power.
Provisions are in place only for a third party to make that decision where the individual lacks capacity to make it themselves, but this is a complex area of law and is very unlikely to arise in employment situations.
It goes without saying that physically forcing someone to have a vaccine would be a criminal offence.
Can an employee be dismissed if they refuse the COVID vaccine?
Again, the basic answer to this question is yes. An employer can dismiss an individual for any reason it likes in practice and that dismissal will be effective. This is important to bear in mind if making the decision to refuse the instruction to have the vaccination. The question then arises as to whether that dismissal was lawful or not.
If the employee has under two years’ service then assuming there are no discriminatory aspects to the situation, or anything else which might make the dismissal automatically unfair, there is likely to be no cause of action for the employee in this situation. They will be barred from bringing an unfair dismissal claim.
It may be more problematic for the employer if an individual does have the required length of service. In this situation, the employer will be relying on one of the fair reasons for dismissal in order to prevent a claim for unfair dismissal. The employer will need to approach this carefully in deciding which route to take to ensure that the correct procedure is followed and that their actions can be deemed reasonable.
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