Since the compulsory vaccination for members of the health and care professions came into force two weeks ago, almost 3,300 employees from 560 facilities have been reported to the city’s health department (GSR) who have not been vaccinated and have not recovered and who have no contraindications to the vaccination.
The GSR estimates the number of people employed in the industry at around 104,000 – but admits that this figure cannot be determined precisely because it is not known how many people work in the numerous medical practices. Based on this, there would be a “vaccination resistance rate” of just over three percent for the city of Munich.
In a representative survey in clinics, the German Hospital Society came up with an unvaccinated rate of six percent. In response to a city council request from the FDP and Bavarian party, the GSR estimated around 5,000 people who refuse to vaccinate.
Until March 16, employees in health and care had to present their employer with proof of their corona vaccination or their recovered status or a certificate stating that the employee cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. This also applies to women in the first trimester of pregnancy.
New employees must be vaccinated
The employer had to report employees to the GSR who did not provide proof. A graduated procedure is now planned for them, which was specified by the Bavarian state government. First, you will receive an invitation to a vaccination consultation at the vaccination center. If they do not comply with this or refuse to be vaccinated afterwards, fines of up to 2500 euros can be imposed. The same applies if an employer does not comply with his reporting obligation.
If the fine does not bring those who are unwilling to be vaccinated to insight, the GSR can issue a ban on entering the workplace – which would de facto mean a ban on working. Since March 15, new employees can only be hired if they can prove their vaccination status beforehand.
Munich’s health officer Beatrix Zurek has sharply criticized the procedure several times. According to Zurek, even without the preliminary fine proceedings, the process would take around 19 weeks if all deadlines for objections, complaints and other legal remedies are observed. The speaker expects that not a single procedure can be completed with the fine procedure in 2022.
However, the duration of the facility-related vaccination requirement in the Infection Protection Act is initially set at December 31, 2022. Zurek: “With these specifications, a timely and consistent implementation of the legal regulations cannot be achieved.”
If bottlenecks threaten, there could be exceptions
After the introduction of compulsory vaccination, it was feared that it would exacerbate the shortage of staff, especially in nursing – because people would quit or be forbidden to practice their profession. The Bavarian procedure, which Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) worked out, was also understood as an answer to these fears – to let the procedure last as long as possible until the time limit has expired.
However, legal remedies against a ban on entry, once it has been issued, would not have a suspensive effect, so the affected person(s) would not be allowed to work for the time being. According to the speaker, the GSR has no knowledge of whether actual employees have resigned in the past few weeks because of the obligation to vaccinate.
If there were supply bottlenecks, the GSR would have the option of making exceptions in individual cases, i.e. not ordering bans on activities and entry. However, the department refers to numerous information events, consultations and vaccination campaigns: “Some companies encourage vaccination with sweepstakes, additional vacation days or bonuses for teams in which all employees are vaccinated.”