If you listen carefully, you might hear that whirring sound…
Ministers will meet later to decide whether or not to scrap mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS staff in England.
Front-line NHS workers in England must be fully vaccinated by 1 April, meaning they need a first dose by Thursday.
The amount of refuseniks who are prepared to take it to the wire is enough to cause significant problems in an already creaky service with frontline staffing shortages. If they are prepared to take the risk with their livelihood and call Sajid’s bluff, they have the upper hand here. This game of poker is reaching a climax and I have a feeling that as the narrative collapses about them, the government will be forced to cave. And a jolly good thing that will be too.
Yes, a policy that was both morally disgusting and, given what we know about the limited effectiveness of the jabs, fatuous as well. It’s shocking that people in the care sector have lost their jobs because of it; they should be reinstated and compensated.
But did they ‘lose their job’, or quit? Hardly any in that profession seem to know that if they wait it out until they get sacked rather than leaving, they can then start a law suit for discrimination, breach of contract and unlawful dismissal. The NHS can’t just say it was under orders from the government because if it wasn’t in the nurse’s contract they lose straight away.
My radiographer wife has a colleague who just resigned because of the vaccine requirement. I just wondered why not just wait and claim unfair dismissal and breach of contract.
Exactly. I just heard that the government is set to do a U turn on the mandate (btw, a mandate is not a law). If that happens there will be a lot who resigned for no reason and they will have no recourse because they went voluntarily. I don’t work in that sector but I suspect that the unions have also been giving bad advice.