VACCINE passports for workers are being considered by a third of major businesses, a new survey shows.
The government is already in talks with organisers of large events with more than 20,000 attendees – such as football matches – about whether people will need to use Covid vaccine passports.
Clubbers have already been told they will have to present proof of vaccination from September.
But now seems that many businesses are taking the initiative themselves and looking at whether to ask staff to produce proof they’ve been given both jabs.
A survey by the British Chamber of Commerce has found 31 per cent of firms with more than 50 staff were considering introducing so-called vaccine passports.
And one on ten of them say they already require staff to be vaccinated with eight per cent they were likely to introduce them.
“Most firms are extremely confused by the Government’s guidance on vaccine passports,” a source at the British Chambers of Commerce told the Telegraph.
“For many it is unclear as to whether they should use the NHS App to ensure the workplace is Covid safe.
“But a number of businesses are either planning to ask for vaccine certification or have already made their own arrangements.”
Read ourcoronavirus live blogfor the latest updates
Meanwhile, a poll of 1,000 business leaders conducted by Owl Labs, a video conferencing company, found that 23 per cent of UK firms were planning to make have the jab a compulsory.
But there have been warnings that firms who do enforce vaccine passports are likely to face lawsuits on equality grounds.
“It appears to be a straight breach and we cannot see how we could do this legally, as much as we might like to,” said one senior industry source.
The Boris Johnson sparked a backlash when he made the nightclubs announcement last week.
It came as he ended most of England’s remaining coronavirus restrictions and allowed the venues to reopen for the first time since March last year.
He said vaccine passports could also be made a condition of entry for “other venues where large crowds gather” adding: “Proof of a negative test will no longer be sufficient.”
It raised has led to concern amongst lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs that mission creep is already setting in and Covid ID could become the norm.
Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group, said the UK is “effectively moving to compulsory vaccination”.
Fellow lockdown sceptic Steve Baker has called Covid papers a “ghastly trap” that would create a “two-tier Britain.”
