In the fight against the corona pandemic, a stronger wind will soon also be blowing in Bavaria.
Health Minister Klaus Holetschek made this clear to Merkur.de.
Munich - Unvaccinated employees in Bavaria will soon no longer receive compensation for loss of earnings.
The Bavarian Minister of Health, Klaus Holetschek, announced in an interview with
Merkur.de
that a corresponding regulation will be "in place with us in Bavaria in October"
.
Anyone who deliberately refuses to be vaccinated against Corona cannot “demand any compensation from the solidarity community”.
The CSU politician said that workers who could not be vaccinated for health reasons would be excluded.
Mr. Holetschek, more and more countries want to abolish continued payment of wages for unvaccinated people in quarantine. How do you see it: Should unvaccinated people lose their right to continued payment of wages if they have to be quarantined after contact with infected people?
Yes, this is already national law. Since there is now enough vaccine available so that everyone could and can continue to be vaccinated, it is now reasonable to apply this current law. The Infection Protection Act clearly regulates compensation in the event of loss of earnings: Anyone who deliberately does not get vaccinated even though there are no medical obstacles to it, is not entitled to compensation for loss of earnings in the event of quarantine. We must now implement this current regulation nationwide. If someone turns down a vaccination offer for convenience or other non-medical reasons, then they have to bear the consequences or the costs themselves. He cannot demand any compensation from the community of solidarity if he has to be in quarantine and does not earn any money during this time.I think that's unfair and unfair. We have also adapted the quarantine regulations to the latest recommendations from the Robert Koch Institute. The quarantine has been shortened to ten days, after five days you can already test yourself free with a PCR test - just like in schools and daycare centers. This would also reduce the loss of wages.
Such a regulation is already included in the Infection Protection Act. What else is there to regulate?
It's simple: now that we have enough vaccine, we have to implement this regulation.
That's what it's about now.
We will do that in Bavaria shortly - and I will also work next Wednesday in the conference of health ministers to ensure that we get a uniform schedule nationwide.
I think that's immensely important.
When should the corresponding regulation come into force?
The implementation should be in place in Bavaria in October.
And here, too, I am strongly promoting a nationwide timetable.
Holetschek: 83 million euros for continued wages
What about people who are infected with Corona and become unable to work: Should the sick also lose the right to continued payment of wages?
No, they shouldn't, and that's not what we're talking about here.
Anyone who falls ill themselves - which, by the way, is also possible with vaccination in some cases - will of course continue to receive their money from their employer, as with any other illness.
Should a corresponding regulation not be reached next Wednesday at the meeting of the health ministers with a view to the continued payment of wages in the quarantine case: Would the Bavarian state government then, if necessary, issue its own regulation, similar to Bremen or Baden-Württemberg or Rhineland-Palatinate ?
We can see that the federal and state governments are pulling together on this issue.
Some are faster to implement, others are following suit.
But I think it is essential that the federal and state governments act on the basis of a common framework.
We want to agree on that next week.
What have the wages paid due to quarantine in the Free State cost so far?
So far, around 83 million euros have been paid out.
What exceptions or restrictions should there be in a corresponding regulation?
Of course, the regulation does not apply to anyone who can demonstrate that they cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.
In the meantime, however, these should only be very few, very special individual cases, which then have to be examined accordingly.
DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann sees a "compulsory vaccination through the back door" in the plans. Wouldn't that actually undermine the freedom of choice that you also propagated?
No, we're sticking to it: there is no compulsory vaccination.
If you don't want to, you don't have to.
But he must not expect the solidarity community to finance this luxury.
To expect this would be immoral, because vaccination is our most effective tool in the common fight against this pandemic.
With vaccination, we can remove the ground from the virus - without vaccination there would only be contamination and, for many people, illness, suffering and possibly death.
I don't know what else there is to think about.