If your business has more than 50 employees, and you have employees who cannot work from home, you are eligible to access rapid workplace testing. You can do so by accessing the online portal which the Government has recently launched.
The Government has not legislated for the vaccine to be mandatory. ACAS guidance has advised that even though employers can support staff and encourage them to take the vaccine, they should not force them to do so.
Some employers are considering a 'no jab no job' approach but this will have to be approached very carefully, with an open mind to alternative measures and a realistic assessment of the risks specific to a particular workplace. In addition, employers will need to consider whether a requirement to get vaccinated will apply to existing employees (where issues relating to variation of contract and reasonableness will apply), or just to new hires.
An employer should only decide to make vaccinations mandatory if they have been through a proper assessment of the health and safety issues involved for their particular business and workplace.
If an employer decides to make vaccinations mandatory for their existing workforce, then the following issues should be considered before implementation:
Although we are seeing an increase in administration of the vaccine by employees at work (especially in certain sectors), it is paramount that health and safety measures remain in place as we are yet to see whether the vaccine is 100% effective and even if it is, not everyone may be willing to take it.
Employers should be cautious when treating the vaccine as a reason to ease any health and safety measures and any such easing should be based on further objective assessment. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance along with guidance provided by regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) remains the same and they will still expect such measures to be maintained when carrying out any inspections or reviews.
Before carrying out any employee testing, employers should inform staff about:
A review of any relevant privacy policy may be required.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) states that as long as there is good reason for doing so, employers should be able to carry out health testing on employees as data protection law does not prevent them from taking the necessary steps to keep their employees and the public safe during the pandemic.
However, employers must handle its employees' personal data with care. Therefore, it is important that employers keep their employees' data safe in relation to both employees' coronavirus test results and vaccination information.