Two care home workers have launched an eleventh-hour bid to overturn the government’s mandatory Covid jabs policy, according to newspaper reports.
The Telegraph reports Julie Peters, a care home programme director from Poole in Dorset, and Nicola Findley, a full-time care home support worker from Wolverhampton, are seeking permission for a judicial review.
The duo, who are bankrolled by freedom of choice campaigner Simon Dolan, have requested a High Court hearing in late October, at which point it would decide whether the claim should be given permission to proceed to judicial review, as well as a final determination of the case.
Care home staff and auxiliary workers have until 16 September to get their first jab in time to be fully vaccinated by 11 November, when the rules come into force.
According to the Telegraph, the legal action against the policy is being brought under five grounds.
These include the following claims: the regulations are incompatible with laws prohibiting the enforcement of mandatory vaccines, they interfere with the right to “bodily integrity”, and they will disproportionately impact women and ethnic minorities.
In addition, the claimants say the government failed to consider alternatives to mandatory vaccination, and that the rules are irrational and will lead to shortages in both frontline and non-front-line care workers.
Stephen Jackson, solicitor for the claimants, told the Telegraph: “These regulations attempt to legitimise a system of coercion and to set us back centuries to a time when the master had effective ownership and control over the servant’s body.
“The regulations are not only medieval in their purpose and determination to ignore the science, which has now shown them to be pointless, but they discriminate against black and ethnic minority workers who make up a significant portion of the low-paid carers and support staff who have worked tirelessly, not only over the last 18 months but for many years.”
