Can my employer ban me from the office?

[Anothercovidthread]

NC.
I have recently started a new job. It is a non customer facing office job, based in Scotland. The company is very large. I have been working from home since I began the job due to covid restrictions. Today, we were told that we will return to the office towards the end of the month and going forwards we will do 3 days in, and 2 days from home. However, to enter the office, you must show proof of having had 2 covid vaccines. My employer will not store details of who has been vaccinated, you just need to show the info to enter. If you have not had the vaccine you are not allowed in the office unless special circumstances and permissions are agreed directly with HR.

I'm still in probation so very concerned about kicking up a fuss but I think this is very wrong.

1. Why should I have to share medical information with reception staff on a daily basis for the foreseeable?
2. Can the company legally ban people from the office for not having a non mandatory vaccine?
3. Assuming that if you have some kind of non vax agreement with HR, you are provided with some other documentation allowing entry to the office, is the company allowed to insist that its shown on a daily basis to whoever is on reception?

AIBU, the employer is just taking steps to keep people safe?

You feel uncomfortable sharing the fact you have been vaccinated? During a pandemic? That’s your issue? It’s a matter of public health, it’s not hard to see why it IS everyone’s business right now.

Seems fine to me. I don't understand the problem.

the personal info may only need to be shared with hr however, you would still need to show reception something that wasn't a normal vax cert every day indicating that there is a bigger underlying issue

You don’t know that - you’re just making up stuff to pretend you’re being victimised.

You’re not. Just get on with your job and stop attention seeking.

There have been lots of victims of COVID.

YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM.

I’m also struggling to see what you’re uncomfortable about.
They aren’t asking for you’re medical history, they don’t care. They care in this specific instance (a pandemic) that you are vaccinated. Or for you to have discussed with HR why you can’t be vaccinated.
Almost like they have a duty of care to their workforce to keep them as safe as possible......

I think if you are unable to get the vaccine due to a medical condition or CEV it would be disability discrimination but otherwise I think it's allowed

@monkeysox

Yab a dick

Well, someone said it.

You're not being asked to show or share medical info. This is a screenshot of the NHS Scotland vaccine page.

Having a screenshot of that on your phone isn't going to be more inconvenient to show than a security pass

If you've been vaccinated you're making this a problem when it really isn't

Have 10 of these and get over yourself!

YANBU OP and good luck in the nanny state that Scotland has become. You're going to need it judging by the stupidity (for want of a better word) on this thread.

Yeah, another who'd like a credible source other than Lisa's super duper Facebook page.

I'm sure they can.
If they can stop you entering fast food restaurants and bars I'd assume it is legal.

My husbands employer is asking for proof of vaccination from staff. If they don’t have it, they can’t come on site. A Covid outbreak at his work could lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds as it would mean they couldn’t deliver their core business and there would be wider implications in the industry he is in which would be headline news. He also works somewhere that requires visitors to have proof of vaccination, so they can’t really have staff on site who are not vaccinated or exempt.

This is really bad, as there has been significant research to show that a large number of those who got serious and life changing vaccine side effects already had natural immunity from covid when they were vaccinated.

Yeah, My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl who had this happen to them, so I guess it must be pretty serious.

@emeraldshamrock I'm not sure what fast food restaurant requires the information? In Scotland only nightclubs or very large indoor events require vaccine proof. You are able to attend the theatre without proof. How can you possibly not require proof for the theatre where you are crammed in like a sardine, yet require for an office which is also adhering to social distancing and mask wearing.

I don't know why some pp are being rude. Perhaps I am old fashioned but I find it very strange that so many are so open with their medical records. Any time I place an order online, I tick the box that I don't want my email address shared with 3rd parties. In reality, most of my inbox is junk mail and it would make little difference if I received some more, but I simply don't want my email address shared so I tick the box. If I'm not willing to share my email address with a database, why on earth would I want to share details of medical procedures to an actual person?! It just doesn't make sense to me however, it seems I am in the minority so I will give it some more thought.

I think it sounds unnecessarily intrusive OP.

They could fairly easily get everyone who's coming in to show either vax proof or medical exemption proof to HR and provide a standard "we've okayed them to come in" pass to show to the ever changing security staff at the entrance. I think this would be a far better practice.

But I doubt you'll have much luck insisting on change before you're back in the office. I think it'll take a few years before we come out of our panic enough to realise we didn't actually have to ignore our medical privacy ideals at all and could have been just as safe and still given people more respect and dignity.

Why not just Google - here I did it for you, this gives all the answers you are looking for:
www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and-insights/news/employers-guidance-to-some-of-the-legal-implications-regarding-workforce-vaccinations

@Namechangedforthethousandthtim
Absolute bollocks.

@boredzelda that makes some sort of sense. My employer is not in the health care industry though, we don't have clients visiting and my team and I perform a non critical function. It wouldn't be ideal if the whole team came down with covid but it wouldn't be catastrophic. Showing a covid certificate wouldn't guarantee that the team wouldn't come down with covid either way though.