The Consolidated Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Direction now requires an employer to include in its risk assessment whether it intends to make vaccinations compulsory.
Although the principle of these guidelines is that employers and employees “should treat each other with mutual respect”, and Covid-19 vaccinations in South Africa are supposed to not be compulsory, employers are now required to assess risk in order to decide if vaccinations will be compulsory in the workplace. The statement reads: “In determining whether an employee can be required to be vaccinated, the employer must identify those employees whose work poses a risk of transmission or a risk of severe COVID-19 disease or death due to their age or comorbidities.”
Aside from the grey area and constantly changing take on what constitutes work that “poses a risk of transmission” or “a risk of severe COVID-19 disease”, mandated workplace vaccination clashes with the right to bodily integrity in section 12(2) of the Constitution, and the right to freedom of religion, belief and opinion in section 13 of the Constitution.
Department of Employment and Labour issued the following statement
Employers should find a reasonable resolution that accommodates all parties where employees refuse to be vaccinated for medical and constitutional grounds. This is contained in the new consolidated direction on occupational health and safety measures in certain workplaces which was gazetted by the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi.
“The key principle of these guidelines is that employers and employees should treat each other with mutual respect. A premium is placed on public health imperatives, the constitutional rights of employees and the efficient operation of the employer’s business,” reads the guidelines.
Constitutional grounds could be the right to bodily integrity in section 12(2) and the right to freedom of religion, belief and opinion in section 13 of the Constitution. Medical grounds refer to issues of an immediate allergic reaction of any severity to a previous dose or a known (diagnosed) allergy to a component of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Consolidated OHS Direction now requires an employer to include in its risk assessment whether it intends to make vaccinations compulsory. This is a three-step enquiry:
- Firstly, it must make that assessment taking into account the operational requirements of the workplace. This means that the Direction does not make the vaccinations mandatory, but every employer must take into account its general duties under the Occupational Health Safety Act, 85 of 1993 to provide a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees and persons other than those in his employment who may be directly affected by his activities are not thereby exposed to hazards to their health or safety.
- Secondly, if the employer decides to make it mandatory once the risk assessment has been conducted, it must then identify which of its employees will be required to be vaccinated. In determining whether an employee can be required to be vaccinated, the employer must identify those employees whose work poses a risk of transmission or a risk of severe COVID-19 disease or death due to their age or comorbidities. In other words, not every employee poses such a risk – for example workers who work from home or whose work is such that they do not come into close working contact with other workers or the public.
- Thirdly, having identified the employees who are required to be vaccinated, it must amend its plan to include the measures to implement the vaccination of those employees as and when COVID-19 vaccines become available in respect of those employees, taking into account the Guidelines set out in Annexure C of the June 2021 version of the Direction. Given the phased nature of the National Vaccination Programme based on criteria determined by NDOH from time to time, an employer may only make it an obligation once the employee becomes eligible under the programme for vaccination and has been registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System and given a date for vaccination.
“What is critical is that we need to balance the needs and to take the dictates of collective bargaining and the need to keep employees healthy and businesses running. The Labour Relations Act emphasises the primacy of collective agreements. These guidelines are not intended as a substitute for collective agreements or agreed procedures between employers, their employer organisations and trade unions,” said Minister Nxesi.
This might include an adjustment that permits the employee to work offsite or at home or in isolation within the workplace such as an office or a warehouse or working outside of ordinary working hours. In instances of limited contact with others in the workplace, it might include a requirement that the employee wears an N95 mask.”
