Following consultation, the government has now confirmed its U-turn on mandatory vaccination policies in health and social care settings.
The regulations that required all frontline staff to be double vaccinated against Covid-19 will be revoked as of 15 March 2022.
This announcement will come as a relief for many health and care settings following a period of uncertainty about the future of their teams. But, as we await further guidance from the Government, there are still many factors for employers to consider.
Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, explains: “Registered managers have been working tirelessly over recent months to ensure compliance with the mandatory vaccine requirement and have experienced significant pushback from employees who did not believe it to be fair or reasonable.
“But now the mandate has been quashed, those who were preparing to lose part of their workforce can now breathe a sigh of relief, as can those employees who chose to remain unvaccinated and had faced dismissal.
“Unfortunately, however, many workplaces have already lost staff because of the Government’s previous position on vaccinations in the health and care sector. These employers may be wondering if they are able or required to rehire these employees in their previous roles and employees who left/lost jobs may be considering asking for them back.
“Whilst there is no legal duty for employers to rehire these employees, particularly if they have since recruited and filled the positions with someone else, it may be that there are some who wish to reach out and re-engage.
“However, if the individual’s original contract of employment was terminated more than one full week ago (which will be likely for most working in a care home), there is no automatic entitlement to maintain their previous length of service.
“Essentially, this means they would be starting again as a new employee, so could be subject to associated terms and conditions – e.g. those relating to enhanced contractual rates or holiday entitlement for employees with long-service.
“The whole question of mandatory vaccines has been a complicated and controversial one from the beginning and, whilst hopefully this will add some final clarity for employers and employees alike, there is still a way to go before things are completely back to normal in the sector.”
