In Hesse, too, the decision that the health ministers from the federal and state governments jointly made on Wednesday will apply in the future: From November 1, unvaccinated people will no longer be entitled to compensation for loss of earnings if they are due to contact with a person infected with Corona or as a returnee have to quarantine from a risk area abroad.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

  • Follow I follow

The Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) recalled after the federal-state conference that he had already announced this step for his federal state in mid-August (FAZ of August 15). According to the Federal Infection Protection Act, employees are entitled to compensation if they cannot go to work due to an officially ordered quarantine, according to the head of government.

However, this claim does not apply if the quarantine could have been avoided by a publicly recommended vaccination.

Sufficient vaccine is now available so that all citizens in Hesse have the opportunity to be immunized.

Therefore, according to Bouffier, there is no longer any legal possibility of further compensating unvaccinated workers in the case of quarantine.

Last week, the Union politician pointed out that the compensation was in principle to be paid by the federal states - or not.

Criticism from the left

Health Minister Kai Klose (The Greens) also said that the end of the compensation for loss of earnings was logical. It is still the primary goal of the state government to prevent overloading the health system. Everyone would have to help. "A society cannot accept in the long term to take relaxations that become possible for everyone through vaccination, but not to participate in the solidarity of the vaccination," said Klose.

November 1st, the deadline from which this regulation is to apply, gives all employees the opportunity to be vaccinated after all. The period is also long enough to allow two doses of vaccine to be administered, as is necessary with Moderna or BioNTech. "So take the chance now and get vaccinated," said Bouffier and Klose. There should be exceptions to the new regulation for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons or for whom no public vaccination recommendation has yet been made.

The left in the Hessian state parliament criticized the decision on Wednesday. After layoffs and short-time work, many had no financial reserves left to forego wages and salaries for two weeks, said Christiane Böhm, the group's health policy spokeswoman. “Endangering the livelihoods of entire families in order to build up pressure is the wrong way.” That is grist to the mill of the so-called lateral thinker scene. Apart from a few exceptions, employers are not entitled to record the vaccination status of employees. "Creating a precedent with the pandemic that undermines these important rights of employees is also extremely dangerous in the medium term," said Böhm.