Politicians say that those who refuse to be vaccinated face no penalties. But in reality, the consequences of job loss are unavoidable.
“Perks” such as looser exit restrictions for vaccinated persons in perhaps new lockdowns are not planned for the corona vaccination – and penalties for those who refuse to be vaccinated are also not provided. All members of the turquoise-green federal government are in line with Health Minister Rudi Anschober. Even if there is a low willingness to vaccinate, no stricter measures are considered, but with education, more people would be vaccinated anyway, it is said.
In practice, of course, the situation looks different: Visiting grandma in the old people's home only with a vaccination or a negative test, flight on vacation as well, it could mean there. As labor lawyer Martin Gruber-Risak from the University of Vienna explains in the “Kurier”, refusing to be vaccinated could also lead to job loss. Because if people in body-related professions such as nursing and hospitals would not be vaccinated, they would at some point be “incapacitated”, according to the report.
Gruber-Risak compares the vaccination of health workers with workers on a construction site: It is a protective measure, anyone who does not wear a helmet on the construction site is also thrown out. Those who do not get vaccinated can at most be switched to another job – if there is no one, the only thing left is dismissal. But there is not only a risk of job loss, but also of not getting one: A vaccination could be a prerequisite for employment in many professions.
According to the labor lawyer, both are not only limited to the health sector, but also include service providers that are close to the body and many professions with customer contact, from post office workers to supermarket employees, from hairdressers to nail designers, from beauticians to waiters. And since vaccinated people with a visible face would at some point work in other companies, a protective mask is not an alternative for many companies.
Gruber-Risak refers to the legal situation with regard to the protective mask: companies have already been able to terminate Muslim women if they did not want to take off their veils when contacting customers. That would then also be conceivable for non-vaccinated people who would have to wear a protective mask. The entire cause is mainly decided by one question that has not yet been answered: whether vaccinated people can infect other people even after vaccination.
