By Cécile D. Posted on December 21, 2020 at 9:59 am Updated December 21, 2020 at 9:59 am
Can employers force their employees to be vaccinated in order to put an end to teleworking? If vaccination is not mandatory, companies can offer in-house vaccination campaigns.
In France, vaccination campaigns general public are expected to begin in the spring. A period that many companies are eagerly awaiting: many of them would like to end the telecommuting and keep employees coming back to their site. Even though Élisabeth Borne promised a relaxation teleworking, many French people, whether they are bosses or employees, hope to be able to find their office quickly.
However, the coronavirus will not have disappeared within a few months: the risks of contamination are still there. Can an employer then require his employees to be vaccinated, in order to reduce the risks At work ?
Emmanuel Macron said it over and over again: vaccination against Covid-19 will not be not mandatory in France. Muriel Pariente, director of the social law department of Ashurst, therefore assures the Figaro what “ For now, the authorities do not plan to make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory in France. An employer cannot therefore take no sanction against an employee who refuses to be vaccinated. He will not even be able to force him to continue teleworking if at the same time he allows those who are vaccinated to return to the office: that would be discrimination. »
She adds that, in the event that the government changes its mind and imposes vaccination, the employer could sanction – even fire – employees who do not submit to the rule.
Some professions have compulsory vaccines: to work in Ehpad, for example, you must be immune to hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and influenza. However, not all professions justify such constraints: « There is a proportionality between the risk and the infringement of liberty. It must be justified by the working conditions “, Explain Stéphane Martiano, lawyer at the Paris Bar and specialist in labor law in 20 Minutes.
His colleague, Emmanuel Gayat, adds that a « employer can advertise as much as he wants as long as he does not ask his employees for vaccination certificates. »Suggest internal vaccination campaigns in business is therefore allowed – this is already done for influenza. But imposing vaccination or penalizing those who do not submit to it remains prohibited.
French law therefore prevents employers from imposing the vaccine as a condition of returning to the office, except for professionals concerned by the articles L.3111-4 and 3112-1, which are mostly related to the field medical.
The rules are slightly different for workers expatriates. Still in the Figaro, Muriel Pariente explains that expatriates who work in a country where vaccination is compulsory must comply with the rules, unless they are « posted by their company abroad “. They therefore depend on French law and can ” ask their employer to bring them back to France [s’ils ne veulent pas être vaccinés]. And he will be required to run », She explains.
In the vast majority of cases, French employees therefore remain in control of their choice.
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