In a business where a vaccination is required in the above sense, the employer may warn employees who ignore a vaccination requirement. If made in writing and against written acknowledgment of receipt following a communication and discussion with the employee, the warning may also be combined with a threat of termination without notice in case of repeated refusal.
Instead of or in addition to this, an employer may also consider to release recalcitrant employees from work temporarily. As a last resort, an employer could also consider dismissing recalcitrants with due notice without risking being accused of an abusive termination. In the past, for example, Swiss courts have deemed dismissal permissible when medical personnel did not want to be vaccinated against influenza or hepatitis B. However, it must be examined why employees refuse the vaccination or whether a refusal may be justified.
Of course, the situation is different if an employee wants to comply with the vaccination order but cannot do so (immediately) for reasons that are not his/her fault. An example would be because he/she is not yet eligible for vaccination in his/her canton or the next possible vaccination date is only available in a few days or weeks. In this case, the employee cannot be accused of breaching any employee duties in that period and therefore cannot be legally threatened. In such a case, however, the employer may want to urge employees to remain in home office until after the vaccination date or, if working from home is not possible or reasonable, to release them from their work duties with continued payment of salary. In other words, the vaccination instruction only becomes applicable as soon as the vaccination is reasonably possible.
In a business/role where no vaccination is required in the above sense, the demand to get vaccinated is inappropriate. Thus, an employee may refuse to follow such instructions without running the risk of breaching employee duties. Consequently, a termination by the employer for refusing to be vaccinated would be considered abusive. However, what may be permissible are instructions or privileges for vaccinated employees, such as for example that they are allowed to return to the office (sooner) or have lunch in the company cafeteria or even attend an employee event.