{"id":227870,"date":"2021-02-19T08:27:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T08:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=227870"},"modified":"2021-02-21T07:29:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T07:29:39","slug":"covid-future-employment-contracts-may-insist-workers-have-been-vaccinated-justice-secretary-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=227870","title":{"rendered":"Covid: Future employment contracts may insist workers have been vaccinated, justice secretary says"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>ITV \u2013 Feb 17, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>New employment contracts may require the worker to have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/topic\/vaccine\">vaccinated<\/a> against Covid-19 in order for them to take up their role, the justice secretary has said.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on ITV&#8217;s Peston, Robert Buckland said it is unlikely employers will be able to insist workers must have vaccines under existing contracts, but suggested it may be possible in new contracts.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;Generally speaking I\u2019d be surprised if there were contracts of employment existing now that did make that approach lawful.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think frankly the issue would have to be tested.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can see that in particular work environments the desirability of having a vaccine is going to be higher than in others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if it is up to employers to test the system and if they would not want people who decline vaccines working for them, Mr Buckland said: \u201cI think that has to be the case because we\u2019re dealing with existing terms of contracts of employment, thousands of existing contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Buckland also said it would be up to pubs and restaurants if they wanted to make vaccines a requirement for entry but said he did not support a government led vaccine passport system.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Justice Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobertBuckland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RobertBuckland<\/a> tells <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Peston?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Peston<\/a> that he objects to the idea that people must have a vaccine to access hospitality or social events, but adds that individual premises may choose to pursue this policy. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Peston?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Peston<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RsZbi2VcJv\">pic.twitter.com\/RsZbi2VcJv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peston (@itvpeston) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/itvpeston\/status\/1362179648856195075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Shadow Communities Minister Naz Shah responded to Mr Buckland&#8217;s comments on Peston by saying the government was &#8220;abdicating its responsibility&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She said: &#8220;You can&#8217;t just say to businesses &#8216;look at your employment law contract&#8217; and not leading from the front&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She added: &#8220;People are looking at the government for guidance and the government is again failing to provide guidance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Wednesday some companies might press ahead with their own schemes despite Boris Johnson confirming the government will not introduce domestic vaccine passports.<\/p>\n<p>He told the BBC on Tuesday: \u201cIt\u2019s up to businesses what\u00a0they do, but we don\u2019t yet have the evidence of the effect of vaccines on transmission.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of the UK\u2019s largest care home providers has already said it is considering whether staff who have refused a vaccine for non-medical reasons can continue in roles where they are in contact with residents.<\/p>\n<p>Barchester Healthcare, which runs more than 200 care homes, said it is considering an option where staff make themselves \u201cunavailable for work\u201d in resident\/patient-facing roles \u201cby reason of their own decision\u201d on not getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>The group had previously announced that it would not hire new staff if they had not had the vaccine for non-medical reasons, citing the vulnerability of its residents and patients.<\/p>\n<p>London-based Pimlico Plumbers said when\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/topic\/vaccine\">vaccinations\u00a0<\/a>are readily available, all new workers will have to have one.<\/p>\n<p>Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins, told ITV\u2019s Good Morning Britain on January 19 that he would be adapting the contracts of existing staff to say they must have the vaccine and that &#8220;99% of the company seems to be happy with it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pimlicoplumbers.com\/blog\/covid-vaccinations-nobody-will-be-forced-to-have-a-vaccination-by-pimlico\">online blog<\/a>\u00a0later clarified it would not force anyone to get the jab.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/2021-02-18\/covid-which-regions-have-seen-the-biggest-fall-in-coronavirus-cases\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Access to employment, travel and some services may depend on whether you\u2019ve been vaccinated or not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227871,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227870\/revisions\/227871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}