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Employees want to know for which professions vaccination would be necessary.
Employees welcomed the news of the possibility of returning to the vaccination obligation. Inga Ruginienė, president of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, said it was not the fact of the vaccination itself that was worrying, but the ignorance of the government.
“It seems that this irregular control is still being used, which is really a source of tension. Everyone says that vaccination or no vaccination puts pressure on employees. It is not the cause, it is precisely that feeling of insecurity when you do not know what will happen tomorrow. It is possible that tomorrow new solutions are waiting for you, you will not be able to adapt to those solutions ”, I. Ruginienė told tv3.lt.
Workers generally tend not to support mandatory vaccination, saying that the path of coercion is not the correct solution to handle a pandemic.
“Now there is a feeling that politicians, due to their inability to handle a pandemic due to the lack of some strategy and scattered communication, are transferring all responsibility to the common man. It seems that the person will also have to pay, ”said the employee representative.
However, most workers are concerned that they are still unaware of the specific professions that would be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“There is a bill, but even to this day the government cannot answer which professional groups the law will apply to. It seems to me that if you take drastic measures, you should already have an argument about who are the people who particularly need these extreme measures.
There must be very serious arguments for this. Not only that, there are many cases, and I came up with, let’s say, a mandatory vaccine for doctors. Somehow it all seems illogical. It should be clear: if they are doctors, why, what indicators, what are the reasons for taking these measures ”, emphasized I. Ruginienė.
The prime minister hinted at employers what to vaccinate
Interestingly, the possibility of changing the Labor Code is not endorsed even by the employers themselves. To the director of the Lithuanian Employers’ Confederation, Danas Arlauskas, it seems that such a proposal would not receive support in the Tripartite Council.
“Frankly, it is strange that it is necessary to incorporate it into the Labor Code. Perhaps more here are the amendments to the Communicable Diseases Law. I understand the logic, we spoke with the Prime Minister about it. <...>
I think that if the Labor Code is passed, there will be no way to reconcile the decision through the Tripartite Council due to the immediate involvement of the unions. I think this path is unfeasible. Because then there will be a great conflict, it will give the unions the opportunity to politicize, to go out in public again ”, said D. Arlauskas on tv3.lt.
Together with the Prime Minister, he has also discussed which employees might be subject to mandatory vaccinations. These are the medical, educational and social services sectors.
“We talked. The prime minister hinted that this will have a greater impact in the health and social sphere, where there is more direct contact. We have said that if the manufacturing sector is included, the situation will be strange. Because, on the one hand, there are companies where 80 percent are vaccinated workers and work safely enough because they do not come into contact.
Then we talk about the need to differentiate according to the risk of infection. And employers must take responsibility for themselves if they say there is no danger, then respond when outbreaks arise. That is what we wanted so that the productive sector was not named, but it was possible to go through the risk of contagion ”, said D. Arlauskas.
At the same time, according to D. Arlauskas, there was also talk of educators.
“They talked about the education sector as a whole. But the commercial sector is also in contact. But both take the appropriate security measures. I remember going to the polyclinic, I was there as some astronauts, I felt that I had smallpox or polio. he laughed, saying it was hard to work.
It is a paradoxical situation that even in the public sector, where it is mandatory, people are not vaccinated. I am in favor of clarity, otherwise we will only expand the opportunities for lawyers to earn money, ”said the employer’s representative.
You may need to change the Labor Code
In a meeting on Wednesday, the government has so far abandoned its original idea of imposing a coronavirus vaccination obligation on some workers. However, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė denied that the government had permanently rejected the proposal and the ministers agreed to return to this issue.
“Should it be an integral part of the Labor Code, which establishes certain procedures for the organization of work and the rights of the employer in the organization of work? Then it would be another change of law and another procedure a bit like the Labor Code.
However, if it were decided that such a provision could be included in that law, it would be possible to return to that question. But first, I think it should be evaluated whether the Labor Code should not be changed. It is quite possible that this needs to be done, “I. Šimonytė told reporters.
According to I. Šimonytė, the idea of establishing the obligation to vaccinate in the Law on Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases of People was abandoned, because the draft amendments did not clearly define which employees are involved.
“It just came to our attention then. Are these particular work organization issues the ones that are the subject of suggestions and of employers who would like to be able to impose such a requirement in their work organization rules?
Obviously, the bill would not respond to such a situation. The wording itself, which is proposed in the project, will be subject to different interpretations. At least a variety of interpretations would be needed, ”said the Prime Minister.
Abandoned the original plan
The Ministries of Health have previously proposed that vaccination in quarantine or emergency be mandatory for workers in those professions that will be included in the list prepared by the Government.
Unvaccinated workers, who would be required to do so, would not have been able to work in contact form. If the nature of the job allows, they would be transferred to work remotely, otherwise they would be transferred to another workplace at the same workplace.
“If neither of these possibilities exist, [darbuotojas] will be removed from work without payment of salary until the day after vaccination after the expiration of the period specified in the government decision, after which the person is considered to have acquired immunity against a communicable disease, but no longer than the state declared by the state of emergency and / or quarantine territory ”, says the SAM document.
However, eventually, at the meeting, the Health Ministry dropped the plan and instead stuck to its upcoming proposal that workers should pay for mandatory COVID-19 testing on their own or from their employers. The proposal will still have to be approved by the Seimas and the president.
The law is proposed to take effect in 2021. December 1 – at that time, vaccinated workers will have enough time to receive at least one dose of the vaccine and gain immunity against COVID-19.
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