School, daycare, care
In these areas, employers can inquire about the vaccination status
Grand coalition has decided: Teachers must disclose their vaccination status on request.
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Last week, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) spoke out in favor of the possibility for employers to inquire about the vaccination status of their employees. Now the coalition has decided: There will be an obligation to provide information in sensitive areas.
According to Health Minister Jens Spahn, the grand coalition has agreed that employers may ask about the vaccination status of their employees in particularly sensitive areas such as care for the elderly or childcare.
Vaccination queries in sensitive areas should be allowed
This regulation has been in place in hospitals for many years “for good reason”, said Spahn to “Spiegel”. Employers are allowed to ask their employees in patient contact whether they have been vaccinated against infectious diseases.
“In this pandemic, we want to extend this right to information to other areas,” said Spahn. The Union and the SPD have now agreed. The minister specifically named the areas of nursing homes, daycare centers and schools.
Employees in care, daycare centers and schools must disclose their vaccination status
In these areas, the employees work closely with people who need special protection, argues Spahn. “How are you going to explain to a relative that the mother died of Covid because the carer was not vaccinated?” He told the “Spiegel”.
In the talk show “Hard but fair”, the Minister of Health spoke last week about better planning in companies if the vaccination status of employees is known. He said: “If everyone in the open-plan office is vaccinated, I can handle it differently than if 50 percent are not vaccinated.”
The disclosure of vaccination status is not extended to other companies
However, employers have to forego this for the time being, the obligation to provide information is not more broadly defined than in the sensitive areas. “It would make sense. But I don’t see a majority in parliament for that at the moment,” said Spahn.
On Wednesday, September 1st, a new version of the Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance was passed. A right to information for employers on the vaccination status of employees was not yet included.
Sources used: Spiegel.de, zeit.de