Tag: mandatory vaccination

Hot off the heels of a number of awards by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) which upheld mandatory vaccination policies in the workplace, the CCMA has recently declared mandatory vaccination policies to be unconstitutional.

On 4 April 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the National State of Disaster would be lifted with effect from 00:00 on 5 April 2022. One of the effects of this is that the Code of Good Practice: Managing Exposure to SARS-COV-2 in the Workplace (Code) became effective on 5 April 2022.

A recent Labour Court judgment has upheld an employer’s right to require employees to have a COVID-19 vaccination or provide a weekly negative test if they decline to be vaccinated, but it leaves several important questions unanswered.

On Friday 21 January 2022, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) delivered a much anticipated first pronouncement on the fairness of a dismissal following an employee’s refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

On 21 January 2022, the first Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decision relating to mandatory vaccinations in the workplace was issued. The Commissioner found that the employee's dismissal for incapacity arising from her refusal to vaccinate was both procedurally and substantively fair.

The Department of Employment and Labour introduced the Consolidated Direction on Health and Safety in Certain Workplaces on 11 June 2021. Effectively, it permits employers to introduce a mandatory vaccination policy provided certain conditions are met.

Several corporations have recently announced that they will implement mandatory vaccination at their workplaces, and possibly many more will follow. This important development will hopefully result in a few unanswered questions around mandatory vaccination finally being tested (and answered) before our courts (including, among other things, disciplining employees in this context).