Corona protection in companies Are employers allowed to force vaccination?

Status: 08.06.2021 7:13 p.m.

Since the beginning of the week, company doctors have also been able to vaccinate against Covid-19. But what about legally? Can companies require their staff to be vaccinated? And are they allowed to grant privileges to those who have been vaccinated? From Jens Eberl, WDR The companies have a great interest in preventing infections with the coronavirus and sick leave. This is why many employers want their employees to be vaccinated. With the start of vaccinations by the company doctors, various legal issues between employers and employees come to the fore. An overview.

Can the employer oblige his staff to vaccinate?

Employees only need to be vaccinated if there is a legal obligation to do so. There is no statutory vaccination requirement with Covid-19. “However, special features apply in facilities such as hospitals, prevention or rehabilitation facilities and medical practices,” says the Brühl-based specialist lawyer for labor law, Michael Felser. “They must ensure that all measures required by the state of the art of medical science are taken there to prevent infections and the spread of pathogens. Curiously, however, this does not apply in care facilities for the elderly, although the problem here is likely to be comparable”, so Felser. In the health care facilities mentioned, the employer cannot force employees to vaccinate either. However, he must ensure that non-vaccinated people pose no risk to patients. Patient protection can therefore make it necessary that non-vaccinated people can no longer work in certain areas.

Do employees have to inform the employer about their vaccination status?

Actually, there is no obligation to provide information about the personal vaccination status to the employer. However, the Gelsenkirchen labor lawyer Arndt Kempgens emphasizes that companies have to take corona protective measures for their employees. But they could only do that if the corona vaccination status was known. Kempgens concludes from this that in connection with Corona, under labor law – as an exception – there could be an obligation on the part of employees to notify the vaccination status and, under certain circumstances, to prove it.

Are vaccination incentives such as bonus payments from the employer permitted?

Employers could pay a “vaccination bonus”, for example through a one-off sum of money, vouchers or extra vacation days. Lawyer Felser says: “This is not entirely uncritical, because rewards can exert undue pressure not to exercise one’s rights. For example, courts have only declared rewards for employees who rarely get sick to be admissible under strict conditions.” The trade unions consider incentives for those willing to vaccinate to be permissible. However, they have a say in any case, as such a bonus is subject to co-determination. Kempgens emphasizes, however, that it must be fair: “There must not only be a bonus for those who don’t like vaccinations as an incentive to vaccinate, but if so, then for everyone.”

Can the employer exert “vaccination pressure”? Can the staff defend themselves against this?

If there is no statutory vaccination requirement, the employer cannot exert any pressure, neither with instructions nor with threats such as transfer or even warnings and dismissal. Such measures would be illegal. However, attorney Kempgens reports: “We are currently hearing more and more of such cases in legal practice. Pressure is exerted to convince those unwilling to vaccinate.” In extreme cases, employees can even defend themselves against this with an action for an injunction before the labor courts.

Are professional disadvantages possible if you don’t get vaccinated?

If there is no compulsory vaccination, the employer cannot differentiate according to whether someone is vaccinated or not or whether they have not wanted to be vaccinated in the past, as long as there was no obligation to do so. In medical institutions, however, the employer can reject applicants if they are not vaccinated and do not want to be vaccinated. Lawyer Kempgens, however, restricts: “Unvaccinated employees require other protective measures in the company and also lead to disagreements among the employees. For this reason, non-vaccinated employees will certainly not be preferred in the company in the near future.”

Are employers allowed to distinguish between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people?

“In my opinion, they even have to,” says Kempgens. “As with official measures, labor law restrictions are more difficult to justify for vaccinated people, while labor law protective measures have to be stronger for non-vaccinated people.” Felser believes privileges are conceivable, such as the earlier return of vaccinated employees from the home office to the office or the use of communal facilities such as the canteen. However, the incentive or pressure from such preferences should not be disproportionate.

Here are the makeup mistakes you should avoid when going to an interview. 1. The foundation is thick and fast-moving When going to an interview, you should apply a thin foundation and slightly catch the light. A radiant face will give the impression that you are an energetic and energetic person to employers. Too much foundation will not only age you, but also create a heavy, tired look. You should also pay attention to using waterproof cosmetics because the lipstick layer will easily drift while you move. 2. Bold eyeshadow There’s no rule that says you can’t wear smokey eyes, can’t wear cat eye eyeliner, and can’t wear false eyelashes when you go to an interview, but you should if you want to make a good impression. With a serious office environment, you should apply eyeshadow with neutral colors such as earth pink, light brown, peach orange. Then you just need to apply mascara to have attractive, radiant eyes. 3. Hit the block too hard Many makeup artists have emphasized that contouring and highlighting are only suitable when you are taking photos in the studio. With daily beauty needs, you should only apply light blush, you can skip the contouring step. Cream blushes with peach orange, coral pink colors will bring a fresh look without being flashy to your face. 4. Dark lipstick color The best tones to adorn the lips when going to an interview are light pink, peach pink, light orange. You should avoid using matte lipstick in dark red, deep colors because it can give the impression that you have too strong a personality to the employer. 5. Sophisticated hairstyles and nails Usually, employers will prefer candidates with neat, unfussy hair than bleached hair, flamboyantly styled. If you have long hair, you can put it in a high bun or tie it in a ponytail. You should avoid letting your bangs touch your eyes and cover part of your face. With nails, you should temporarily skip the bright drawings, prominent decorative stones to go back to neutral colors. Whether you have nail polish or not, you should also cut your nails carefully, clean, not let the nail tip get stuck with dirt.

Talking to CNBC, 6 people said they refused to be interviewed, offered a job or left TikTok as soon as they learned of the company’s 996 culture, whether through online review or direct experience. Culture 996 is very popular with Chinese business. It comes from the requirement that the work begins at 9am to 9pm, 6 days / week, or 72 hours / week. Meanwhile, the number of working hours in the UK and the US is about 40 hours / week. In the UK, working in excess of 48 hours per week on average is considered illegal. “I stopped discussing immediately” An employee invited to act as a communicator for TikTok said 996 culture is really a concern. When researching TikTok on the Glassdoor recruiting site, the most common downside is work imbalance – insane working hours and life. This person “stopped talking immediately when he knew that they were not very flexible about the location and working policy”. A few weeks later, the person was offered a similar role at ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, but declined. Another senior artificial intelligence researcher revealed that he did not accept TikTok’s invitation even when the employer announced the salary of more than £ 100,000 / year (3.25 billion / year), not including bonuses. The expert also went to Glassdoor to look for TikTok reviews. For this person, the balance between public – private is very important. Of course, online reviews are not the only factor to refuse to go with TikTok. While Glassdoor is recognized as a useful platform when searching for a company’s internal culture, it’s not perfect, and reviews are for reference only. People can post many different reviews. However, 4 former TikTok employees told CNBC that they have had a really negative experience here. A former employee said TikTok is the most “poisonous” office I have ever tasted. “Everyone there is completely miserable and life is too short. In the first year before the epidemic swept, I counted only four or five weekends without work… I know TikTok is having trouble with hiring but in the end they don’t care. People to them are just numbers ”. Another former employee shared that, on average, he had to work 15 hours a day at TikTok. “For them, that is normal. Everyone complained but still accepted, perhaps because of good pirated wages “. This person also dislikes the company’s very opaque culture because he doesn’t get an answer when asking a question about his or her workplace. “Stay away, stay away, stay away” Two other former employees of TikTok concur with the above point. One person even sent CNBC a review of the company on Glassdoor titled: “Stay away, stay away, stay away”. In the 1-star review, there are 10 reasons listed why people should refuse to join TikTok and look for another company. This person criticized the “unbalanced public – private life” to “toxic groups” and “terrible management”. TikTok is expanding its workforce globally to deal with the pressure of becoming too popular. The company seeks content management, technical or policy staff. To improve the working environment, TikTok recruited Michal Osman from Facebook to be the European Cultural Director in January. However, countless people left before. Currently, TikTok employees in Europe are more than 3,000 people, up from 1,600 people in September 2020. Many people used to work at Facebook and Google. A TikTok employee said not to go through 996 culture at the company. In addition, they have rules such as prohibiting meeting on Wednesday lunchtime or not meeting on Friday afternoon. Like any other development startup, employees work hard and sometimes have to work overtime when urgent, said a TikTok spokesperson. Song TikTok has no 996 policy. In the UK, consulting firm Great Place to Work ranks TikTok as the 30th best place to work based on employee experience and anonymous feedback. Du Lam (According to CNBC)