Passport to work?

The official position on vaccine passports is a moving target. The mood has shifted from a resounding ‘no chance’ to a current review being carried out by Michael Gove, and a lot more positive noises being made about their potential to allow safer opening up. Much of the mainstream debate focuses on activities such as going to the pub or foreign holidays, but we should also be carefully examining how passports might impact on the world of work. Questions around who can and will get vaccinated, and how vaccine passports might affect workers, are closely wound together in this debate.

There are no plans to introduce a vaccine passport within the current unlocking timetable, although businesses are at liberty (within the law) to make their own decisions on whether they want to ask customers or employees about their vaccine status. Any vaccine passport that may be introduced is likely to be a digital certificate showing whether someone has been vaccinated, when, and with which vaccine.

It could also show Covid test results, and whether someone may have natural immunity through having had the virus. There have been indications from government that people could be asked to prove their vaccination status once all adults have been offered their first dose in July.

Concerns include exclusion, implementation and ethics

Alongside the potential benefits of vaccine passports are a number of broad concerns: potential for people who aren’t vaccinated to be excluded from venues and activities; questions around implementation, for example would individual businesses be responsible for checking passports, and whether it’s right for them to have such power; and a range of ethical issues, touching on individual freedom, state surveillance, potential for deepening inequalities, and concerns around data privacy. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission for example believes vaccine passports could lead to unlawful discrimination. These issues are pertinent when we focus on the potential impact of vaccine passports on employment and workers.

a de facto obligation to be vaccinated could result

Whether employers could, or should, be able to require proof of vaccination from their employees is perhaps the most obvious controversy. Employees with existing contracts are unlikely to be mandated to have a vaccine unless there is a change in the law, however new hires could theoretically be required via their contract. This is already being implemented by major care employer Care UK, if someone’s role means they will come into contact with care home residents.

In a sector such as social care where service providers have a responsibility to ensure their patients and customers are safe this is more justifiable, but does it set a dangerous precedent? Might we see such requirements creep into other sectors? If this was coupled with vaccine passports, a de facto obligation to be vaccinated for anyone wanting to enter or remain in work in many sectors, particularly those involving face-to-face contact with customers, could result.

For most people, getting a Covid vaccine is something to celebrate, but are we comfortable with the potential for people to be excluded from work because they do not want it? We may not like their reasons, but they are within their rights to say no. Should they lose their job or a future employment opportunity because of this? Significant numbers of people have legitimate medical reasons for not being able to have a vaccine, for example allergies or pregnancy; if an employer cannot force them, can it be justified in obliging others to be vaccinated or to prove it via a passport?

Could personal health data be misused?

Digital vaccine records are being hailed as an HR benefit, allowing an employer to look at their whole workforce, to see who has been vaccinated and then plan accordingly. It could allow them to increase capacity if social distancing could be reduced or ended, allow more face-to-face contact and meetings, and help to manage Covid risk.

But is it ethical for employers to collect this personal health data, and to use it to make such decisions? It could easily be misused, with non-vaccinated workers being denied shifts or given less hours, regardless of their reasons for not having a jab.

Would a perception of vaccine passports as a ‘guarantee’ of safety give employers a false sense of security? Having a high percentage of your staff vaccinated does not mean that a workplace is completely safe. No vaccine is 100% effective, and the existing Covid vaccines are designed to prevent serious illness, not to stop people catching the virus completely.

An over-reliance on vaccine passports as a safety measure could result in people working in insecure environments, as it may encourage employers to reduce other safety features such as distancing or mask-wearing. If, as seems likely, Covid continues to mutate into new variants, some of these may prove to be far more resistant to our current vaccines; how long before a vaccine passport becomes out of date, and turns into a dangerous promise of safety that in reality has drastically reduced?

it may become difficult for individuals to say no for fear of being excluded

Although it is probably not currently legal for an employer to make a Covid vaccine an absolute requirement of employment, if vaccine passports are introduced and become widely accepted as an indicator of someone’s ‘safe’ status, it may be more difficult for individuals to say no for fear of being excluded, sidelined or otherwise discriminated against.

Leaving it up to individual businesses to decide on their own vaccine policy and requirements around proof of Covid status leaves huge scope for different approaches to the legal and ethical issues, and makes it harder for individuals to understand their rights or challenge their employer’s position.

Existing inequalities may be widened

Challenges with access to vaccines and the means to prove one’s Covid status could exacerbate existing social and economic inequalities. If employers come to rely on proof of vaccination via a nationally developed vaccine passport, this is likely to be delivered via a smartphone app. The digitally excluded, for example those without an up-to-date phone or the income to pay for mobile data regularly, will find it difficult to reliably access and use such an app.

People already social excluded including the homeless and vulnerable migrants are less likely to be registered with a GP, and therefore may fall through the gaps when it comes to be invited for a jab. It hardly needs to be noted that many of these same people will be either unemployed or in poorly paid, insecure work. Being unable to prove their Covid status will simply compound their insecurity.

Existing ethnic inequalities could be strengthened too; although numbers are rising, some minority communities have a higher likelihood of vaccine hesitancy, in many cases stemming from justifiable mistrust of institutions. If a vaccine passport becomes in any way a passport to employment, minority communities that are already disadvantaged in the labour market could suffer further.

These risks need to be worked through thoroughly, and weighed up against possible benefits of vaccine passports. Given the probable timescale to introduce one in the UK, unlikely to be until after the entire adult population has been offered a vaccine, it’s hard to argue that vaccine passports are a necessity.

Enjoyed this? Read more from my blog or other publications.

(c) Anna Dent 2021. I provide research, writing and expert opinion, and project development in Good Work and the Future of Work / In-Work Poverty and Progression / Welfare benefits / Ethical technology / Skills / Inclusive growth