While companies only since 1 November by law are allowed to introduce CovidCheck for employees, the system has been in place for months in Luxembourg hospitals and healthcare facilities.
RTL first reported that a care worker at Robert Schuman Hospitals was let go for refusing to undergo coronavirus tests. The hospital on Wednesday confirmed to Delano’s sister publication Paperjam that a “labour procedure is underway”. The member of staff has not been at work since June, refusing to undergo CovidCheck even though the hospital says it provides free tests for unvaccinated employees.
The vaccination rate at the hospital is 89% among healthcare staff, although the hospital could not explain how it established this number, given that there is no systematic tracking of vaccinations among staff. The case in question is unique among the group’s 2,310 employees.
No other cases for the moment
The Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL) is “not aware of any similar conflict situations involving employees in the hospital sector,” said secretary general, Sylvain Vitali.
The Centre hospitalier Émile Mayrisch (CHEM) “confirms that, to date, it has not had any cases of refusal to submit to the CovidCheck scheme among its staff.” The facility provides tests for those employees who need them among the 2,020 staff. Without being able to calculate it precisely, the hospital in Esch-sur-Alzette estimates its vaccination rate at around 75%.
No refusal of CovidCheck either at the Centre hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), it assures. Here too, the tests are paid for by the hospital. The hospital claims a vaccination rate of 92% and previously said it would in future.
When contacted, the Centre hospitalier du Nord (CHdN) did not respond to Paperjam.
In France, healthcare workers who are neither vaccinated (unless medically contraindicated) nor recovered from covid-19 are not dismissed, but have their employment contract suspended, which prevents payment of salary. This could be the case for 15,000 employees out of the 2.7 million concerned by the obligation, according to an estimate by the French ministry of health published by several media in mid-October.
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.