Status: 09/01/2021 07:30 a.m.
With a new regulation, Minister of Labor Heil wants to force vaccination in companies. The wish of employers to inquire about the vaccination status of employees is not yet taken into account – but remains under discussion.
The Federal Cabinet is today dealing with a new occupational health and safety ordinance. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil wants to involve employers more closely in the vaccination campaign against the corona virus. “The protection of employees continues to have top priority for me as Minister of Labor,” Heil told the “Rheinische Post”.
“We want employees to be supported in taking advantage of vaccination offers: through targeted information and company vaccination offers. We also want employees to be released to be vaccinated,” said Heil. “We are also extending the employer’s obligation to offer a free test twice a week. In addition, the tried and tested hygiene concept continues to apply.”
According to Heils draft, employers should also support the company doctors with organizational and personal support. The willingness to vaccinate should be promoted by addressing the employees and by an in-house information campaign. In the future, employers should also be able to take into account the vaccination or convalescence status of employees in their anti-corona hygiene concepts – provided they are aware of this.
Employers want to be able to inquire about vaccination status
The Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) had criticized that, according to Heil’s plans, the question of vaccination status was de facto prohibited. “Companies and businesses now need a clear message that they can inquire about the vaccination status of their employees in order to ensure the necessary measures to protect the health of all their employees,” said BDA President Rainer Dulger on Monday. The chief executive of the employers’ association Südwestmetall, Peer-Michael Dick, said it was “absurd that companies still have to offer free corona tests but are not allowed to ask about the vaccination”.
The German Hospital Society (DKG) also spoke out in favor of employers’ right to information. “Knowledge of the vaccination status can be important information for employers in order to be able to take into account the protection against infection in the workplace”, said the DKG board chairman Gerald Gaß of the “Rheinische Post”. “The employer should know whether he is taking a risk, for example when working in open-plan offices or when meetings take place in person,” he emphasized. In the healthcare sector, employers have been able to record the vaccination status of their employees since 2016.
Health Minister Jens Spahn, in his own words, recently tended to change the Infection Protection Act so that employers can ask about the vaccination status of employees for at least the next six months. Economics Minister Peter Altmaier is also in favor.
Lambrecht: Only justifiable in “special hazardous situations”
Heil had rejected such demands: The occupational safety and health did not give it because of the personal rights of the employees, said the SPD politician in the rbb. He is now waiting first “whether Mr. Spahn has just made a comment on a talk show, or whether the colleague has a specific legislative proposal. The German Trade Union Confederation also strictly rejects the plans with reference to data protection.
Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht also considers the employer’s right to information about the vaccination status of his employees to be justifiable only in exceptional cases. “Health data of employees are particularly sensitive, including the question of a vaccination against the coronavirus,” said the SPD politician in the newspapers of the Funke media group. A right to information is only conceivable in certain cases “in which it is a matter of special hazardous situations”.