Rejected petition Prohibit employers from requiring staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19

Make it illegal for any employer to mandate vaccination for its employees. This should apply to all public sector (including the NHS, armed forces, care workers), third sector and all private sector.

More details

We believe making vaccination a condition of employment undermines the principle of informed consent. All Welsh people must have the right to bodily autonomy and must never be coerced into receiving a medical intervention they may not want.

Any medical intervention must always be with properly informed consent (awareness of risks vs benefits) and be free of coercion (whether explicit or implicit).

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.

Petitions to the Senedd must call for a specific action that falls within the powers of the Senedd or Welsh Government.

Schedules 7A and 7B of the Government of Wales Act 2006 set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ to the UK Parliament - i.e. areas where only the UK Parliament or Government, not the Senedd or Welsh Government, can act.

Employment law is a reserved matter and therefore the Welsh Government could not enforce what the petition is seeking against any private or third sector employers. As a result, it is not possible for the Senedd to take the action called for by your petition.

In terms of the public sector, the Welsh Government has already confirmed that there is no intention to mandate vaccinations for public sector staff.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards

Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted