Corona vaccination for nursing staff and doctors: Can the employer force me to vaccinate?

Nursing staff and medical staff have priority with the corona vaccination.

But not everyone wants to be vaccinated.

Can employers request a vaccination?

• The EU commission approved a

  vaccine against Covid-19

  this week

  .

• From December 27, 2020, the first people in Germany will be vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, including

  nursing staff and medical staff

  in old people's homes and hospitals.

• Can employers require their employees

  to have a corona vaccination

  ?

The

vaccination against the coronavirus *

is in the starting blocks: On December 21, the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

approved

the use of the

Covid-19 vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer

.

The EU Commission has also approved the vaccine.

Now, according to the federal government's vaccination ordinance, the most vulnerable groups of people should be vaccinated first.

This includes not only the residents of old people's and care facilities, but also care staff and medical workers in old people's and care facilities, in hospitals and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination centers.

Doctors will join them later.

There are good reasons for this, after all, employees in these areas are particularly at risk.

In daily contact with patients or residents, they can also spread the coronavirus very quickly to many people and thereby endanger human lives.

But

what happens to employees who do not want to be vaccinated?

Can the employer force you to be vaccinated against Covid-19?

Also read:

Salary: How Much

Do

Nurses Make?

Compulsory vaccination for nurses and nurses?

That's what labor lawyers say

According to Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, there is no compulsory vaccination against Covid-19 in Germany

give, vaccination is voluntary.

In this respect,

employers

can

not usually require their employees to be vaccinated

, reveals Johanna Wenckebach, Scientific Director of the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute for Labor and Social Law (HSI) to the

Handelsblatt

.

"The interference with the physical integrity of employees associated with a vaccination is too serious for that." Even without a vaccination, employers are obliged to work, the lawyer continues.

Nursing and clinic staff can still face dismissal if they do not get vaccinated.

Because employers are

obliged to keep their employees as healthy as possible, says

labor law expert Professor Richard Giesen from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.

Therefore, he must also ensure appropriate working conditions.

"If there are no longer any employment opportunities for such an employee who has not been vaccinated, then the worst possible consequence would be personal dismissal," he reveals to the BR.

Even if

patients or their relatives request vaccinated staff

or

if

unvaccinated employees pose a high health risk for the patients, vaccination refusals could face personal termination if they cannot be used otherwise.

This is confirmed by the Hamburg specialist lawyer for labor law Prof. Dr.

Michael Fuhlrott across from the

Handwerksblatt

.

Also read:

Corona: Do I have to work in quarantine - or will I be released from work?

Corona vaccination: politicians and ethics council see medical staff as a "duty"

Although Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has ruled out compulsory vaccination, he and other politicians are demanding that medical staff be open-minded to be vaccinated.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) even spoke at a press conference of a vaccination “requirement” for employees in the nursing and elderly care. 

Also, the Ethics Professor Nikolaus Knoepffler, member of the Bavarian Ethics Council, medical staff considers the "moral duty" to get vaccinated and applies for opposing vaccination harsh words: "If someone is in a nursing profession or the medical profession, it hurts for me this

moral duty

in several ways.

Above all, he hurts her in the sense that he does not fulfill his role model function: namely to encourage others to get vaccinated.

But at the same time he endangers others.

He should rather know how frail our health system is, ”warns Knoepffler to the

BR

.

(as) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen central editorial network.

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