Labour Law
Uncertainty on the fairness of dismissing anti-vaxers The recent ruling by the CCMA to overturn the dismissal of an anti-vaxer; does this open the floodgates?
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arly in 2022 I wrote an article on a case where an employee was dismissed for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid. In that case Ms. Mulderij applied for exemption from the employer’s vaccination policy on the grounds that the Constitution gave her the right to bodily integrity; but she was turned down. When she refused to be vaccinated, she was dismissed for reasons of incapacity. The CCMA arbitrator found that her dismissal was fair essentially because:
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my office magazine
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The employer’s mandatory workplace vaccination policy, from its drafting up to its implementation, had followed all the crucial steps; � The employee had refused to participate in the creation of a safe working environment. Several arbitration decisions followed upholding the dismissal of anti-vaxer employees. However, the CCMA more recently ruled against the retrenchment of an antivaxer. In the case of Kgomotso Tshatshu vs Baroque Medical the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy was based
on the operational need to avoid employees missing work due to illness and to ensure a safe working environment for its employees. Ms. Tshatshu refused to be vaccinated, claiming that she had suffered an adverse reaction to the flu vaccine she had previously received. She provided the employer with two medical certificates confirming this claim. Despite this she was retrenched without receiving any severance pay because the employer had found that the medical certificates that she had provided were neither reasonable nor substantiated. August 2022
