In the first case, a woman was affected who, as a consultant in workplace health promotion, visits external customers, including nursing homes.

In October 2021, her employer informed all employees that from November onwards only fully vaccinated employees would be allowed to attend on-site appointments.

The employee then declared that she had been vaccinated and also presented a vaccination card to the human resources department at the beginning of December.

However, it did not have a QR code.

Between November and December, the employee continued to visit customers.

However, an examination by the employer revealed that the vaccine batches documented in the vaccination card were only vaccinated after the date entered.

Ursula Kals

Editor in business, responsible for "Youth writes".

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After an interview, her employer fired her without notice.

The employee appealed against the dismissal at the Cologne Labor Court.

However, this was dismissed by the dismissal protection action (judgment of March 23, 2022 - 18 Ca 6830/21).

The extraordinary termination without notice was justified by an important reason.

Reason: On the one hand, the plaintiff was unable to refute the allegation of forgery, on the other hand, disregarding the 2-G rule in face-to-face contact with customers was not only contrary to instructions, but also a serious breach of duty.

By trying to substantiate the false claim of complete vaccination protection by presenting a fake vaccination certificate, she forfeited the necessary trust to continue the employment relationship.

In the opinion of the court, the employer also did not violate data protection regulations.

As part of a control obligation, he was entitled to compare the vaccination status with publicly available data from the batch query.

The plaintiff can appeal against the judgment at the Regional Labor Court in Cologne.

Batches identical, dates not

The Düsseldorf labor court had to decide on a similar case.

Here, a kitchen consultant at a furniture store presented his employer with a copy of a vaccination certificate in November 2021.

He had previously stated that he did not want to be vaccinated.

An audit by the management revealed that the vaccination certificate could have been falsified.

The vaccine batches entered were identical to the data of another employee, but the vaccination dates were different.

When questioned, the clerk admitted the forgery.

The company then fired the employee without notice.

The employee appealed against the dismissal and gave several reasons for this.

In his opinion, he should have been warned beforehand.

The submission of the copy of the counterfeit vaccination card was a one-off process and not punishable.

In addition, he knew nothing about the introduction of a 3-G rule in the company.

However, at no time did he pose a higher risk of infection, since the falsified vaccination data did not show whether he was regularly tested before starting work.

In addition, the employment relationship had been free of objections for years.

High level of criminal energy

The labor court did not follow this argument (judgment of February 18, 2022 – 11 Ca 5388/21).

Due to a variety of media reports, he should have been aware of both the 3G regulations in the workplace and the high risk of infection with the associated health consequences.

He could therefore not invoke a lack of knowledge.

Rather, the employee had shown a high degree of criminal energy with the deception and forgery and thus permanently disturbed the relationship of trust with his employer.

With his calculated and ruthless behavior he endangered the health of other employees and customers.

He also accepted work and production losses due to quarantine orders.

With the submission of the forged document it can also be concluded that

that he had no intention of being tested.

Due to the severity of the breach of duty, neither a risk of recurrence nor the long-term trouble-free employment relationship are relevant.

A prior warning was also unnecessary.

The most spectacular case so far

The most spectacular case of vaccination pass falsification to date was caused by Markus Anfang in November 2021, when the Bremen public prosecutor's office initiated investigations against the then soccer coach of the second division team Werder Bremen.

Allegation: Beginning presented a fake vaccination certificate to the Bremen Health Department.

Beginning initially denied it, resigned shortly thereafter from his position at the football club.

In January 2022, he finally confessed to the forgery.

The sports tribunal of the German Football Association then retrospectively suspended him for a year and sentenced him to a fine of 20,000 euros.

In addition, the district court issued a penalty order in the amount of 36,000 euros towards the beginning.

However, job loss is not the only consequence workers face.

In Hildesheim, the public prosecutor's office is investigating a nursing home employee for manslaughter.

The employee is said to have worked with a fake vaccination card, even though family members of hers were ill with Covid-19.

There was a corona outbreak in the facility that killed three people.