corona pandemic
Dispute about entitlement to unemployment benefit after compulsory vaccination
The compulsory vaccination for employees of health facilities, which was already decided for mid-March, is getting closer. Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the Bundestag, Wolfgang Kubicki is arguing about mandatory vaccinations with fellow MPs. Outside with authorities chiefs. The question of access to unemployment benefits for the unvaccinated now made waves.
The compulsory vaccination for employees of health facilities, which was already decided for mid-March, is getting closer.
The general obligation to vaccinate is still hotly debated in the Bundestag and far beyond Parliament. But what actually happens when an unvaccinated person loses his job? Does he get unemployment benefits at all? According to the Federal Employment Agency, there are serious differences between facility-related and general vaccination requirements.
The chairman of the Nuremberg Federal Employment Agency, Detlef Scheele, put the problem on the table last weekend – and promptly reaped biting criticism from FDP Federal Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki. “The fact that people are put in the laces simply because of their vaccination status is now unbearable for me,” said the FPD politician, who is also campaigning against general vaccination in the Bundestag, on Sunday evening on “Bild” TV. Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht even thinks of “arbitrariness and social blackmail”, as she confided in “Bild”.
A look at the law books helps – at least one step. The Federal Agency must – for example when awarding unemployment benefits – decide according to the legal situation. And Section 138 of the Social Security Code III clearly states that anyone who wants to receive unemployment benefits must make themselves available to the labor market. In plain language, this means that he must accept a job that is offered to him by the employment agency, for example, if he is suitable and the work is reasonable from a certain point of view – regardless of the industry.
In the case of facility-related compulsory vaccinations, this means that anyone who is fired or released from work by their employer because they have not been vaccinated can generally receive unemployment benefits – provided they are generally available for the general labor market and are fundamentally willing to take the job regardless of the industry switch. In practice, this should at least be a back door through which those affected can slip.
If there is a general obligation to vaccinate, this could also be the door. Because: An unvaccinated person would then no longer be available for activities in other sectors – the vaccination requirement would apply to all professions. Scheele believes that employers have the right not to consider unvaccinated people when looking for a job. The federal agency would then have to check whether unemployment benefit should be suspended, argued the head of the BA in the newspapers of the Funke Group.
Federal Agency: First of all, it is up to the legislator to act
Kubicki made this foam: “I find it unabashed to come up with such suggestions in the current phase,” said Kubicki on “Bild” TV. “The danger does not come from the unvaccinated, but from the infected.” So one would have to say: “Anyone who becomes infected loses their entitlement to unemployment benefits because they can no longer make their labor available. Mr. Scheele will immediately recognize that this is complete nonsense.”
A spokesman for the federal agency emphasized on Monday that it was the legislature’s turn. If corresponding possibilities were created in the legislation for a general obligation to vaccinate, then the Federal Agency would of course also be bound by a possibly new legal situation.
In an orientation debate on Wednesday, the Bundestag discussed in detail for the first time the introduction of general corona vaccination in Germany. The traffic light coalition has agreed that the deputies should deliberate and decide in a free vote without the usual group guidelines. A decision could be made according to SPD plans in March. A group around Kubicki wants to prevent compulsory vaccination in general.