Unvaccinated health workers may return to work
A decision by the Council of State is paving the way for doctors and nurses employed in the public health system who were put on furlough for refusing mandatory vaccination for Covid to return to work.
Ruling on a complaint lodged by the POEDIN state doctors’ union, judges at the country’s highest administrative said that a measure extending the furlough of hundreds of medical workers until the end of the year violated the Constitution.
More specifically, they argued that any decision preventing state medics from working needs to be reassessed at regular intervals, taking into consideration the latest epidemiological data and the recommendations of the experts.
In the case of health workers in the public system, the last time the decision to ban them from working without being vaccinated was reviewed was eight months ago, the court said.
Health Minister Thanos Plevris had said last month that unvaccinated health workers would be allowed back on the job by the end of the year. His announcement effectively extended their furlough.
About 6,500 healthcare workers in the National Healthcare System (ESY) were suspended in September 2021, when the ministry’s deadline for them to get the vaccine expired.
Half of those eventually returned, after getting inoculated, while some 2,200 remain suspended, of whom only 170 are doctors while the rest are nursing and other paramedical and administrative personnel.
