Vaccinated or not vaccinated? Should, and above all, be a question at work? Jens Spahn is in favor of employers being allowed to query the vaccination status of their employees – Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is against it.
The Federal Cabinet decided on Wednesday to extend and supplement the Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance. As Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) announced, companies should expand their efforts to motivate unvaccinated employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. However, employers do not have a right to information about vaccination status.
In advance, the Federal Labor Minister had spoken out against the proposal by Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) for a vaccination status query from employers among employees. Spahn had indicated that the Infection Protection Act would be changed so that employers would be able to ask about the vaccination status of employees in the next six months.
“The employer’s general right to information will not be able to exist, labor law does not provide that,” Heil clarified in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” magazine. It is still important that the world of work does not become a source of infection. “What is not possible is that we make very personal data about the health status available to everyone.”
At the same time, however, the SPD politician spoke out in favor of pragmatic solutions. For example, it is possible to set up a kind of 3G rule via the infection protection law at particularly sensitive workplaces such as hospitals or old people’s homes – i.e. to require employees to prove that they have either recovered, vaccinated or tested. Health Minister Spahn would have to make a legally secure proposal for such a pragmatic solution, Heil said. “You have to think about such demands through to the end. You can’t just ask for something in a talk show.”
Right to information conceivable in certain cases
In the opinion of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber (SPD), a legally secure right of employers to information is basically conceivable – but only in a transitional period, for a specific purpose and under specific conditions, i.e. only in the context of a pandemic situation.
The employer is only allowed to receive general information, for example within the framework of a 3G regulation: “If you say that we equate vaccinated, recovered and tested people, then of course the employer does not have to know which of these three partial statuses you meet,” said Kelber on Deutschlandfunk. Above all, it is important that the employer does not automatically find out whether someone has recovered or has been vaccinated – because that would also be an indication of possible long-term damage from a Long Covid disease.
Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) also believes that inquiries about the corona vaccination status at work are only justifiable in exceptional cases. “Health data of employees are particularly sensitive, including the question of a vaccination against the coronavirus,” Lambrecht told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “A right to information from employers is therefore only conceivable for me in certain cases in which there are special hazardous situations.”
Hospital societies and employers’ associations for the right to information
The Minister of Health also received approval for the initiative from the German Hospital Association (DKG). “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”. Employers should know whether they are taking risks with employees, for example when doing work in an open-plan office. In the health sector, employers have been able to record the vaccination status of their employees since 2016.
Support also comes from business. “In order to get the pandemic completely under control, all areas of the economy must now be able to ask their employees about their vaccination status,” demanded, for example, the chief executive of the employers’ association Südwestmetall, Peer-Michael Dick. The President of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, Rainer Dulger, emphasized that companies and employers need a clear message that they can inquire about the vaccination status of their employees. This is the only way to ensure “the necessary measures to protect the health of all of its employees.”
According to a recent survey by Yougov, most people in Germany are in favor of employers being allowed to know whether their employees have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. 56 percent of Germans share this opinion, 19 percent are against. 18 percent say that it depends on the work situation. 7 percent give no answer. Supporters of the CDU / CSU say most often (70 percent) that, in their opinion, employers are allowed to know whether their employees have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. At 28 percent, supporters of the FDP most often say that it depends on the work situation.
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
