Dismissal For Employee Being Unvaccinated In Care Home Found To Be Fair

The heavily debated implementation of mandatory vaccinations in the care industry has had its first tribunal finding!

In Allette v Scarsdale Grange Nursing Home Ltd, the tribunal reached its decision that an employee’s dismissal for her refusal to be vaccinated against coronavirus was fair.

The employee made it known that she did not trust the vaccine’s safety because it had been rushed without proper testing and that she had conspiracy views based on what she had read on the internet. Her late-stage reasons were put forward after the disciplinary procedure was initiated for her refusal to comply – it was now her religious views that justified her reasons for not wanting to be vaccinated. But the employer faced a bigger problem – its public liability insurance providers confirmed that they would not be covered for covid related risks, including where an unvaccinated member of staff was found to have passed the disease on to a resident or visitor. For this reason, the employer decided it was unable to make an exception for this employee and her employment was terminated for not complying with the management instruction. Her scepticism of the vaccine was not enough to justify her refusal and her claims failed.

It is anticipated that claims of this nature will increase over the coming months and we will continue to explore the tribunal rulings by dissecting the reasons behind them.

Please note that the case is a ‘first-round finding’ at the employment tribunal – this means that it could be appealed by the unsuccessful party and because of that, it has not (yet) set a legal standard for all to follow.