They work at the hospital, but were not in contact with patients.
The administrative court of Lyon, seized in summary, returned on the suspension of three hospital workers of the unvaccinated Loire, by expressing a "serious doubt" on the legality of their sanction, we learned on Monday from their lawyer.
In its judgments delivered on Friday, the court ruled that the CHU of Saint-Étienne and the hospital of Roanne could not suspend these agents, who are contesting their sanction for refusing to receive vaccines against Covid-19, both their appeals were not considered.
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The three agents, two women and a man, believe that they are not concerned by the vaccination obligation made to the nursing staff because they all work in the kitchens of their hospital establishment, and are therefore not in regular contact with patients.
Agents can temporarily resume their duties
"Given the location of the central kitchen of the CHU" in Saint-Étienne where the two applicants work, and the Roanne agent exercising "his duties as a cook in an annex building located outside the hospital", the court considers that these elements are "likely to give rise to serious doubt as to the legality of the decision in dispute".
He therefore ordered the suspension of the contested sanction “until it has been decided” on the merits of the case.
The suspension of hospital decisions "implies the provisional resumption of the activity and the remuneration" of the applicants.
"This shows that decisions taken with regard to the law of August 5 can be potentially illegal", commented their lawyer, master Thomas Bénagès, specifying that the judgments in these three cases would not intervene "before several weeks".
130,000 health professionals not vaccinated at all
The vaccine obligation against Covid-19 came into force in mid-September for 2.7 million professionals: hospital and retirement home staff, private caregivers, home helpers, firefighters, ambulance attendants.
Since then, thousands of suspensions have been served on unvaccinated people.
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In practice, 130,000 health professionals were not vaccinated at all on October 6, according to the Directorate General of Health.
However, the number of suspensions is estimated at only 15,000 in recent days by the Ministry of Health.
This means that a large part of the unvaccinated has not yet been sanctioned.
Among the possible reasons, we can think of a "tolerance" on the part of the establishment or that the person has taken leave or that he has obtained a work stoppage.