Can companies require employees to get vaccinated against coronavirus?

According to the Norwegian Working Environment Act, companies must ensure a healthy and secure working environment. In connection with the coronavirus, this means that companies must carry out a risk assessment for possible infection and implement measures to prevent infection. Such measures can for example be good hygiene, social distancing or remote working.

As a vaccine is being introduced earlier than first anticipated, the question of whether companies can require vaccination at the workplace is interesting. The same applies as to whether it may lead to termination, if an employee refuses to get vaccinated and consequently is prevented from going on business trips or performing work assignments for one or multiple clients.

Vaccination requirement at the workplace

An offer to get vaccinated has usually been considered a fringe benefit. However, the current rules do not provide that companies can require employees to get vaccinated – neither with respect to the normal flu, coronavirus nor other types of viruses. The question is therefore if companies, in absence of agreement, can lawfully implement a vaccination requirement as a control measure, and whether it can ultimately lead to termination for employees who refuse to comply.

A vaccination requirement is an extensive intervention with respect to the employees’ personal integrity from the companies’ side. It has not yet been confirmed as necessary to introduce vaccination requirements and that measures such as remote working, social distancing and good hygiene should not be adequate to prevent infection at the workplace. Consequently, the companies’ interest in having the employees vaccinated would, under the current circumstances, most likely not outweigh the employees’ interest in personal integrity as required by Norwegian case-law. This applies even if the interest in implementing a vaccination requirement as such could be considered justified.

The Norwegian rules on control measures would therefore likely not admit implementing a vaccination requirement at the workplace. It can therefore currently not trigger consequences for employees who refuse to get vaccinated. In accordance with the rules on health information and data protection, it would, as a main rule, also be prohibited to collect information on whether employees or job applicants have been vaccinated against coronavirus in connection with work or employment. However, the GDPR does not prevent taking measures which are necessary to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Consequently, it could, in certain situations, be permitted to process said information. In such cases, the legal basis would most likely be articles 9 (2) (b) and 6 (1) (c) of the GDPR. The assessment may however come out differently for different groups of employees, where the scope should be larger in relation to, for example, doctors and other health professionals in critical and more exposed functions.

Irrespective of the above, companies should avoid systematic and extensive collection of health information. Companies should also be aware of the importance of limiting the access to such information and to otherwise comply with the data protection principles

Because the possibility to implement a vaccination requirement currently can be considered as limited, both with respect to personal integrity and data protection, companies should instead consider more general measures such as continued recommendations on working from home or increased social distancing between employees, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated.

Can companies require vaccination with respect to business trips?

Currently the expectation is that many countries and airline companies will require proof of vaccination as a condition for entry. If an employee refuses to get vaccinated the consequence may therefore be that the employee is in fact prevented from going on business trips or performing certain work assignments.

Even if employees refuse to get vaccinated and de facto prevents themselves from performing their job, it is unlikely that termination can be justified. The threshold for a termination is high in Norway, and companies should therefore instead look at other relevant solutions such as relocation to positions or delegation of work that do not require vaccination.

Vaccination requirements in commercial agreements

Another possible result of recent developments is the introduction of terms in commercial agreements requiring that the employees at one of the parties to the agreement must be vaccinated against coronavirus. Either as a separate requirement to the agreement or as part of an HSE policy to be followed.

Although vaccination requirements in commercial agreements may be enforceable in some countries, it’s uncertain if Norwegian companies can be bound by such terms, seeing that in many cases companies will be prohibited from enforcing such a requirement against the employees. The term could therefore be considered legally impossible to comply with and therefore unenforceable. Even for employees choosing to satisfy a vaccination requirement on a voluntary basis, companies would as a main rule be prevented from obtaining information hereon under the current rules and would therefore have difficulty guaranteeing or otherwise enforcing such a term towards customers.

IUNO’s opinion

It’s unlikely that companies can require that employees must get vaccinated against coronavirus. However, as an alternative to mandatory vaccinations, companies are free to both recommend and offer voluntary vaccines through the workplace. When vaccination is both free and easily available, the recommendation for employees to get vaccinated will be more effective. However, measures such as remote working, social distancing and good hygiene are effective against infection in the workplace. IUNO therefore recommends that companies continue the use of such measures for now, regardless of how many employees are vaccinated.

IUNO recommends that companies seek legal advice before implementing measures, and at worst decisions on termination of an employee refusing vaccination. This also applies before companies implement requirements upon employees to get tested for coronavirus. We have previously taken a closer look at these new requirements here.