Covid Measures Act is being revised. FFP2 mask or nasal drill tests desired as an alternative.
Similar to medical staff or the students who have to (have) regularly tested for Corona, there should also be test obligations in retail. Specifically for commercial employees in the shop, with customer contact. So far it has been the case that trade employees either have to present a negative test result once a week or have to wear an FFP2 mask. Anyone who had a negative test result in their pocket was allowed to wear normal mouth and nose protection.
Now this option no longer appears in the new legal text. The trade representatives are critical of the changes planned by the Ministry of Health in the amendment to the Covid-19 Measures Act and the “mandatory testing without alternative” contained therein. The Chamber of Commerce and the Trade Association want mask-wearing to be retained as an alternative.
App solutions
Should the government stick to its plan and prescribe compulsory testing for all trade employees with customer contact, the trade association will at least require approval of nose picker self-tests as valid evidence. These nose piercing tests could then be carried out in the branches. App solutions can also be imagined in the Chamber of Commerce.
A (missing) short passage in the new legal text is currently causing irritation in the industry. In the draft of Section 1 (5c) of the Covid-19 Measures Act, there is no obligation to provide for the wearing of an FFP2 mask in a corresponding ordinance as an alternative to proving that there is only a low epidemiological risk.
Find a replacement
The trade association and the chamber can continue to live with the previous regulation during the corona crisis. If, however, testing is compulsory, then in the companies – as in schools – the “nose drill tests” should be able to be used as valid, the association believes.
These self-tests are now also being given in pharmacies. Otherwise, a replacement worker would have to be deployed, especially for small businesses, when employees have to go to test stations during working hours. This can no longer be financed for the companies, some of which have been badly hit by the Corona crisis. “With 330,000 employees in the retail trade, this is an economic and political supergame,” as the trade association fears.
Proven protection
“Wearing FFP2 protective masks in retail as an alternative to testing has proven itself,” says Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the federal trade division of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). Wearing FFP2 masks must remain an alternative to testing. Should this alternative fall away, retailers, especially in rural areas, would encounter the difficulty of a lack of test capacities.
If there is no alternative to compulsory testing, the Chamber of Commerce wants self-tests to be recognized, including with 'living room tests' under supervision or as a self-test with an app solution as confirmation.
