Vaccination obligation: Haute-Savoie firefighters suspended

Europe 1 with AFP 9:26 p.m., August 19, 2021

"Less than a dozen" Haute-Savoie firefighters have been suspended since Monday because of the gradual application of the vaccination obligation, said the director of firefighters of the department. Until September 15, firefighters, like all health professionals concerned, must present a negative covid test, if they are not yet vaccinated, to be able to work.

A handful of them did not present this test on Monday for taking up their post, which led to their suspension, the regional daily Le

said Thursday morning

, citing three of them.

"I went to the guard and got thrown like a dime after 21 years of service. My self-test was not enough," one of them told the newspaper.

"We had to make examples and we were the first to pay the price."

"Lots of internal communication"

Pascal Lorteau, the director of the SDIS of Haute-Savoie, confirmed that "less than ten" firefighters, volunteers or professionals, have been suspended since Monday "because they had not produced a negative result" of test. He specifies that the firefighters cited by the

have since seen their suspension lifted because they have "brought themselves into compliance". Some were still concerned, this Thursday afternoon, by this sanction.

"It must be related to a total of more than 3,500 firefighters" in the department, insists Pascal Lorteau, assuring that there has been "a lot of internal communication (...), of pedagogy". "We must face the facts: vis-à-vis some of the agents, even the best arguments of common sense do not bear," regrets the director. Depending on the gradual application of this obligation - which concerns caregivers and employees of Ephad in particular -, at least one negative test must be presented until September 15, then at least one dose of vaccine against Covid-19 until October 15 so as not to be suspended. For professional firefighters, this results in a suspension of salary.

In early August, one of the main French professional firefighters' unions, the FA SPP-PATS, announced that it had given notice of an indefinite national strike to protest against the compulsory vaccination of firefighters.