Shopping center Corona shopping center
The government has sent an amendment to the law for review. In the future, an FFP2 mask should no longer be able to replace a negative corona test.
Teaching staff, kindergarten teachers and civil servants in party relations have so far had the choice: Either they have corona tests or they wear an FFP2 mask at work. In the night of Thursday, however, the Ministry of Health sent a new amendment to the law for assessment (by March 9), which turned many regulations on corona measures inside out. For example, teachers, kindergarten teachers and civil servants should not be able to choose whether to wear a corona test or wear an FFP2 mask. You should have to go to a corona test in the future.
The Austrian trade, however, is critical of the amendment, which has been sent for assessment. In particular, the planned mandatory test with no alternative for all employees with customer contact causes severe irritation. The trade association managing director Rainer Will fears additional financial expenses for dealers and says in a press release:
“With 330,000 employees in the retail sector alone, the planned mandatory test without an alternative for all of our companies – whether small or large – would be an economic disaster.”
The reason for the additional workload: Since, according to the general collective agreement, the employer has to release the employees from work while the remuneration is still being paid, the employer would have to cope with considerable additional financial and organizational expenses if this change actually occurs. For small shops that are only manned by one person, this would mean having to use a substitute for the test period. “This is simply no longer financially viable for companies, some of which have been badly hit by the Corona crisis.”
It has now “even been scientifically proven that the risk of infection for employees in retail is much lower than that of the general population,” Will clarified. In addition, one could not understand the “intention behind this planned amendment”.
Should the federal government finally put its plan into action, the trade association will at least demand the approval of nose bur self-tests as valid evidence. These have been available free of charge in pharmacies since this week. “The nose drill tests could be carried out directly in the branches by the employees themselves and would therefore take up far less time resources. In addition, the test streets could be relieved as a result,” says Will with conviction.
