Now that the vaccine rollout has been underway for some time, questions are being raised about eventually being allowed to return to the workplace.

Every adult in the UK could have both doses of the Covid vaccine by August or September, according to the head of the UK’s vaccine task force, Dr Clive Dix.

As a return to something resembling normal grows closer, here’s what we know about whether you’ll have to tell your boss if you’ve had the jab…

Do you have to tell your employer whether you’ve had the coronavirus vaccine?

Alan Price, CEO of BrightHR, says that the first thing employers should note is that the Government has, at the time of writing, not made getting the vaccine mandatory for the general public.

They also haven’t made it compulsory for people to tell their employers whether they’ve had the jab or not.

‘Therefore,’ explains Alan, ‘Whether such a provision could be required of staff will depend upon the company in question and the role of the employee.

‘For example, it may be easier to argue that an individual in the care industry should inform their employer whether they’ve had a vaccine, as this could help to reduce the risk of them, their colleagues and service users becoming infected.

‘However, this may be much more difficult to justify in an office environment, especially when other levels of mitigation are put into place, such as social distancing, that can help reduce the risk of infection.

‘Arguably, this is a personal decision for individuals to make and should not impact their ability to conduct their role unless demonstrated otherwise.

‘To this end, it should be carefully considered if asking staff to disclose this information could lead to problems with employee relations and, more seriously, constructive unfair dismissal if their failure to disclose this information means they are penalised at work.

‘In short, if employers do want to put this in place, they should be able to clearly justify why it is necessary.’

Alan also points out that it’s not yet known if the vaccine helps to reduce transmission rates, adding: ‘As this data becomes available, it may become easier to justify this requirement, but in this, as with many other things, we will have to wait and see.’

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