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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Threatened with losing my job

205 replies

Finallylostit · 19/01/2022 22:49

Yesterday, I got a letter and a delightful email in my work email telling me I am going to lose my job unless I get vaccinated.

Yes I work for the NHS.

This is insulting and rude when those in power think to threaten people without getting their data /facts correct.

May 2020 - I received my first vaccine as part of the first vaccine trial in the world. By the end of June 2020 I had my second dose. In June 2021 - I had a new trial booster.

Problem is if you had your vaccine as part of the trials that helped move the world back to normal - then the systems do not recognise it as being had. The NHS app will give me a covid pass and says i have had it but it is not considered the real thing that everyone else got after being tried on people like me.

I have to email my proof to them to prove ~I have had it. 3 emails later and I have had to send in passport details, vaccine trial details, this detail that detail etc etc.

Today 'i got invited to a meeting with my manager to discuss the implications of my refusenik beliefs and to inform me that as of April 1st I will not be employed by the NHS. That said person could not see how frustrating it is for someone who has been vaccinated all along but systems do not recognise it and still asked me for proof - just pushed me over the edge today.

Whilst I appreciate this is adminstritative it really is insulting that they can not get this right. I and many of my NHS colleagues volunteered blindly into a trial not knowing what the hell would happen to help the world.

our thanks for helping move the world on - threatened with the sack. Thoroughly pissed off Vax volunteer.

OP posts:
Oblomov22 · 20/01/2022 09:36

This sounds really irritating. Your evidence should be good enough.

Etinoxaurus · 20/01/2022 09:36

Thank you for being part of the trial. As pp have said- Union!

Pippioddstocking · 20/01/2022 09:38

Thank you for being part of the trial. Because of people like you the world will one day get back to normal. I’m sorry you are being treated appalling by your employer now and my thank you will mean very little but I just wanted to say it.
From a fellow NHS worker.

AnotherCupOfTeaDear · 20/01/2022 09:39

Fucking hell, I'm angry on your behalf and what a waste of money
I'd contact my union, disgraceful after you put yourself on the line for the benefit of others, both with the vaccine and working through it

HarrietteNightingale · 20/01/2022 09:40

I known people in your situation, they just got the extra jabs so it would be recognised. Simple.

What, all three at once, just because of the administrative incompetence of their employer?

WhosThatBehindTheFlask · 20/01/2022 09:41

Yup, this'd make me bloody furious too.

As someone who believes the vaccine may have saved her life and the lives of vulnerable family members, thank you so much for being part of the trials. And for the work you with the NHS.

There is a full and healthy family here because the vaccine meant that, by the time Covid made it in through the front door, we were no longer so vulnerable to it. You helped make that happen.

The 'system' may seem ungrateful but I am not.

Seriouslymole · 20/01/2022 09:41

@Theballoonsinthesky

Why are people not up in arms that in 2 weeks time 90k NHS staff will be served notice? They've worked the deadliest part of the pandemic with no protection and as we are coming out of the pandemic they will lose their jobs for standing up for body autonomy? The virus is being passed on by vaccinated people just as much as unvaccinated and to let this happen is crazy. I work for the NHS and have had 3 vaccines but I just can't believe we have come to this. I could understand if it was impossible to pass the virus on if you're vaccinated but like I said the transmission rate between fully vaxxed is off the charts so how is a dr any more of a risk to a patient if they're not vaccinated? People should get the vaccine to protect themselves not others as it doesn't work for that.
This is spades. It's an absolute outrage.
FrancesFlute · 20/01/2022 09:43

That's awful, OP. So frustrating that people aren't listening to your explanation.

My DH was also part of a trial and works for NHS but to my knowledge this hasn't come up for him. I know it took a while for his vaccines to show on the app.

I hope it gets sorted ASAP for you. Thanks for being part of the trial Smile

notthemum · 20/01/2022 09:43

@Keladrythesaviour

That's appalling. I don't say this often but I would be going to both my MP and a newspaper about this. Those who trialled the vaccines need to be treated like absolute hero's, not villified in their own work place. I hope you get it settled OP.
This. I am so sorry that you are being treated like shit. Please do as this poster suggests.
Hoppinggreen · 20/01/2022 09:47

It’s an admin error.
Happens in most organisations and it’s not personal.
Stop being so dramatic

Newnamefor2021 · 20/01/2022 09:51

I don't get why people are being so mean and cruel to you OP. I would be pissed too. How dare they threaten your job when you have t done anything wrong.

Have you contacted your union and put in a grievance?

Belfastbird · 20/01/2022 09:55

Firstly thank you for volunteering for the trial. I work in clinical research & we are incredibly grateful to our trial volunteers.

Have you flagged this up with the trial team? If not they will escalate this. If you want to DM me the names of the trials I am happy to escalate via my local vaccine trial pathways in a general sense (I suspect you won't be the only one facing this and they will want to resolve this nationally)

TheDaydreamBelievers · 20/01/2022 09:56

NHS is notorious for bureaucratic blunders like this. I had a huge mess when I moved jobs, essentially because the old job HR put my paperwork through as contract ended, not as a transfer to a new role. Spent the first month in my new job proving that I existed, was offered the new job, and was in fact now doing new job. Didn't get paid for 2 months until it got sorted, all using huge amounts of my clinical time even though it was not in any way my error. If anything anyone does doesn't exactly fit their (creaky, not interlinked) systems, everyone gets flustered and acts like you are the villain.

Phew ! I was obviously still angrier about that than I thought !

feellikeanalien · 20/01/2022 10:00

Frankly this is just another example of the shit state that this country is in.

No-one is prepared to use common sense or challenge any instruction which seems illogical.

I really despair for the future.

Plantagenous · 20/01/2022 10:05

The number of people like you that have had the vaccines as part of a trial must be so tiny that it would never make sense to include this in the questionnaire though.

Go to the meeting with your relevant documents. Take an advocate if necessary. If they sack you it will be constructive dismissal but it would never get that far. You are a statistical outlier is all. A meeting will clear it up.

endofthelinefinally · 20/01/2022 10:08

The OP has already stated that the trial has been unblinded and this has shown that OP had the covid vaccines. The letters that OP has in her possession from the trial should have been scanned into her GP record and the vaccine status updated in that record. There is an error in that process that is not the fault of her employer. Presumably the employer is checking the vaccine record that has not been completed.
OP. have you checked that your GP has the unblinding information?

NamelessBaby1 · 20/01/2022 10:10

Ah good old NHS data systems! As others have said, as long as you have all the relevent paperwork you'll be absolutely fine. It might be worth escalating to senior staff / HR before any more time lasses though, especially or your own manager is being unhelpful.

Thanks for taking part in the trial though! I'm surprised you haven't been asked to get a booster with Pfizer or Moderna though given AZ is far less effective against Omicron, EOD have thought ethically they'd have to ask you to do that.

olympicsrock · 20/01/2022 10:13

How bloody annoying. I think end of the line is right in that asking your GP to add the information to you nhs record is the way to go.

Regularsizedrudy · 20/01/2022 10:14

@HarrietteNightingale

I known people in your situation, they just got the extra jabs so it would be recognised. Simple.

What, all three at once, just because of the administrative incompetence of their employer?

No spaced out appropriately. Ands it’s not an admin error. The trial vaccines are not considered valid, anywhere, rightly or wrongly. But it will make life much simpler to just get the recognised vaccine or op will run into this problem again and again.
HarrietteNightingale · 20/01/2022 10:21

It's not possible to have them "spaced out appropriately" at this time though as she is facing this now? And in future I expect only the CEV and elderly will be encouraged to have any ongoing vaccines.

PilatesPeach · 20/01/2022 10:22

That is disgraceful OP how dreadful for you

Ireolu · 20/01/2022 10:24

Sounds about right for NHS management incompetence 'computer says no'. Hope you manage to get it sorted OP

AgathaMystery · 20/01/2022 10:25

Thank you for volunteering to do the vaccine trial. It was an amazing thing to do for all of us xxx

BigYellowHat · 20/01/2022 10:25

YABU. They think you haven’t had it and have made a cock up. No-one’s died. Get over it 🤷‍♀️

Topseyt · 20/01/2022 10:29

@Hoppinggreen

It’s an admin error. Happens in most organisations and it’s not personal. Stop being so dramatic
An admin error that threatens her with getting the sack! I'd say that is pretty dramatic, and the drama has all been created by her employer (the NHS) not checking facts
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