Stop paying wages for corona-unvaccinated people: trade unions are vehemently criticizing - "disservice"

“Not thought through”: Employee representatives fear consequences under labor law.

The left warns that workers can ignore the quarantine.

Berlin - Will the problem of the lack of vaccination be shifted to companies and employees?

At least that's what the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the Verdi service union think.

You have criticized the planned end of continued payment of wages for unvaccinated people in corona quarantine in many federal states.

Politicians are introducing a “mandatory vaccination through the back door,” said DGB chairman Reiner Hoffmann on Wednesday on

Deutschlandfunk

.

Corona in Germany: Continued payment of wages in several federal states on the brink

Several federal states had announced in the past few days that they would end compensation for loss of earnings if unvaccinated people had to go into quarantine on official orders because of contact with infected people.

The continued payment of wages in the event of illness is not affected.

"The policy is in the word that vaccination should remain voluntary," said Verdi boss Frank Werneke the

Funke

newspapers on Wednesday.

The debate triggered by employers' associations and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) on the cancellation of compensation was counterproductive.

This creates uncertainty in companies.

"With such a compulsion we will not increase the vaccination rate significantly," said Hoffmann.

He called on politicians to "make themselves honest" and say whether they wanted vaccination.

He also criticized that the labor law consequences of the move had not been considered.

DGB boss Werneke: Corona vaccination "enable during working hours"

According to Werneke, the DGB and its member unions have played an active part in accelerating the vaccination rate in Germany for months.

"Employers are now called upon to emphatically advertise vaccinations and enable them during working hours," demanded Werneke.

"In the worst case, the cancellation of continued wages can lead to the affected employees ignoring the quarantine in order to avoid wage losses," said the deputy leader of the Left in the Bundestag, Susanne Ferschl.

"This is doing the infection protection a disservice."

Infection Protection Act: The federal and state governments are fighting for a common line

Federal Health Minister Spahn announced on Tuesday that the federal and state governments wanted to find a common line on the subject at a video conference on Wednesday next week.

It is about a passage in the Infection Protection Act.

Accordingly, people who have to be in domestic isolation on official orders and are therefore unable to work receive state compensation for loss of earnings.

According to the law, no compensation will be given to anyone who could have avoided the failure by vaccination.

So far, payments have been made in these cases anyway, not least because there was not enough corona vaccine available for a long time.

(AFP / frs)