Employees are advised to first seek legal advice before going against a companies’ Covid-19 vaccine mandate, as it could cost them their jobs.

This is the message from Cape Town law firm SchoemanLaw Inc, following a recent decision by the CCMA to uphold the dismissal of an employee who refused vaccination.

The Commission ruled that Theresa Mulderij’s sacking by the Goldrush Group was “substantively fair”.

Senior candidate attorney at SchoemanLaw Inc, Gabriella Keeble, says in many cases, the safety of the many, will outweigh the decisions of the few.

Keeble has some tips for employers who want to avoid getting to this point where the CCMA is approached:

Mulderij initially applied for medical exemption but then changed tack when doctors refused to grant it, then protesting her right to bodily integrity. She also claimed she felt extreme social pressure and emotional discomfort being subjected into deciding between her livelihood and accepting the vaccine.

Leading constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos says a lesson here, is that perhaps, doing “your own research”, and embracing widely circulating but misleading or outright false claims about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines can cost you your job. You can read his analysis of the ruling, and access the ruling HERE.

One wonders whether the CCMA might have come to the same conclusion (confirming fairness of dismissal for refusing to get vaccinated) if Ms Mulderij had not based her refusal on misleading and false claims about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.https://t.co/8ePsNwxWBf pic.twitter.com/M3Zb3ZR78g

— Pierre de Vos ⚖️ (@pierredevos) January 26, 2022