Should employers be able to query the vaccination status of their employees? This question has been widely debated – now there is an answer. There should not be a general obligation to provide information on vaccinations. However, employees in sensitive areas must now disclose their status.
In the future, employers should be able to request information about a corona vaccination or a recovered Covid disease from employees in daycare centers, schools and nursing homes. After hours of consultation in the government coalition, the Union and the SPD agreed on this late Thursday evening. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) confirmed corresponding information from the German Press Agency and told “Spiegel” that for many years it has been “for good reason” that an employer should ask its employees in patient contact whether they have been vaccinated against infectious diseases. “In this pandemic, we want to extend this right to information to other areas.”
In the draft of a corresponding amendment from the parliamentary groups of the CDU / CSU and SPD, which the dpa has received, it says: “The employer can (…) provide information or proof of vaccination protection or natural immunity from the employee regarding Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID19). ” Especially in day care centers, schools and homes, “in the interest of protection against infection” it may be necessary to use employees “differently or to refrain from employing unvaccinated people (in certain areas)” with regard to their corona vaccination and serostatus, which provides information about antibodies. .
Obligation to provide information only applies during the “epidemic situation”
Spahn explained: “How do you want to explain to a relative that the mother died of Covid because the carer was not vaccinated?”
The possibility is only to apply during the established epidemic situation of national scope, which the Bundestag extended for a further three months last week. However, there should not be a broader duty to provide information, for example to enable work in an open-plan office. “It would make sense. But I don’t see a majority in parliament at the moment,” said Spahn. “Business Insider” had previously reported that there should be no general right to information for all companies.
The reason for the project in the application is that “particularly vulnerable groups of people are cared for or are housed in the facilities concerned or that numerous people are exposed to a risk of infection due to the spatial proximity”. Employers could use the information to organize work in such a way “that the appropriate use of staff is possible and, if necessary, appropriate hygiene measures can be taken”. The data should be collected directly from the employee. “The voluntary nature of the decision to claim vaccination protection remains unaffected,” the draft clarifies.
Spahn against compulsory vaccination in nursing professions
Spahn had fueled the debate on the obligation to disclose the corona vaccination status for employees on Monday in an ARD talk show. He had said that he tended that employers could ask for it for at least the next few months. Spahn had again rejected a compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups such as the nursing professions.
The employers’ association BDA had called on the Bundestag to create the basis for mandatory vaccination information in the company. The unions had resisted a corresponding obligation to provide information. The new regulation is to be decided on Tuesday in the Bundestag.
