RSM UK’s response to the Government’s U-turn on compulsory vaccination for health and social care workers

Government U-turn raises further questions on health and social care workers and vaccination status

RSM is a leading audit, tax and consulting firm to the middle market with 3,660 partners and staff operating from 32 locations throughout the UK.and has published its response and warning to the Government U-turn.

As the Government does a U-turn on compulsory vaccinations for health and social care workers, Carolyn Brown, Employment Law Partner and head of client legal services at RSM UK said:

‘This change of policy may not mean that all unvaccinated frontline healthcare workers in England will keep their jobs. It is not that simple. At the same time as scrapping the legal requirement for the two-dose vaccination mandate, the Government says it will use ‘indirect regulation’ to ensure all health and social care workers do their professional duty and get vaccinated.

‘Care home employers of the 19,300 staff who have already left the care home sector due to this regulation may be fearing claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination or other remedies. Whether their fears are founded depends on the timing of the introduction of their policy and of the dismissal. Therefore, care home sector employers who decide to keep their mandatory vaccination policy need to look carefully at the virus impact background against which it is deployed as we move through the latest stages of the pandemic. It seems we haven’t heard the last of the vaccine mandate discussion in the health and social care sector.’