No jab, no job Strict policy makes sense for care homes, says minister

Care homes have obvious reasons for demanding that staff have had the Covid-19 vaccine, the Justice Secretary has said.

Robert Buckland said that although the Government would not be imposing a blanket “no jab, no job” policy on companies, he believed that it could be justified when employers were negotiating future contracts with staff and there was a “very clear rationale” for such an approach.

“Future contracts and contracts of employment are indeed matters between employers and employees,” Mr Buckland told the BBC.

“I think that where such conditions are imposed there needs to be a very clear rationale for them.

“In a care home, a closed environment where there are vulnerable residents, I would argue there does seem to be an obvious rationale,” the Justice Secretary said.

“I think it will depend very much on each setting and the particular context. That is why I don’t think it would be right to say there can be a blanket approach here because we need to go back to the fundamental fact that vaccines are not compulsory here in the UK.

“There’s a very good reason why we don’t do that where you have people who for genuine medical reasons cannot have the vaccination. There are other considerations more generally about consent.

“If you follow from that, it’s clear to me that where employers want to take that step, there needs to be a very clear basis before that happens.”