Is it fair to dismiss an employee who refuses COVID-19 Vaccination?

Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination

In Allette v Scarsdale Grange Nursing Home the Employment Tribunal said that a care assistant who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was fairly dismissed. 

Scarsdale Grange Nursing Home provides residential care for dementia sufferers. Ms Allete worked there as a Care Assistant from 3 December 2007 until she was dismissed on 1 February 2021. In the ET Ms Allette said she refused to be vaccinated because she did not trust that the vaccination would be safe for her. She said she was a practising Rastafarian and it was against her Rastafarian beliefs to take any form of nonnatural medication. In addition, she had already contracted COVID and believed that she had natural immunity.

Scarsdale Nursing Home said that Ms Allete’s refusal to take the vaccine was because she did not trust it, rather than any religious belief, and that her refusal represented an unreasonable risk to the health and safety of the residents, staff and visitors, and exposed the Home and possibly the directors to the risk of legal claims. Ms Allete had accepted that vaccination would reduce the risk of death or serious illness. Accepting that fact, while still refusing to be vaccinated was unreasonable and justified a dismissal for ‘some other substantial reason’

The Tribunal said that the Home's mandatory vaccination policy was a reasonable management instruction and did not interfere with Ms Allete’s right to privacy. The instruction was particularly justified, given there had been a COVID outbreak within the Home at the time and the mortality risk of the care home residents was high, some having already died.  Also, the Home’s insurers had threatened to remove cover if unvaccinated staff were allowed to work.

The Tribunal balanced the employer's concerns against Ms Allete’s reason for refusal, which was a concern about the safety of the vaccine and said that this was not a good enough reason in the circumstances.  The Tribunal concluded that the employer's decision to dismiss was within the range of reasonable responses, and so the dismissal was fair.

This decision would not be applicable outside the care home sector, where the risk of serious harm to residents at that time (early 2021) was particularly severe.  An office-based employer will not have the same justification for a mandatory vaccination policy.