Vaccinated, Recovered or Tested – Austria Introduces 3G Rule in the Workplace – News

For employees in Austria, the 3G rule will apply from November 1. The protest is already planned.

It’s all about: In Austria, the 3G rule applies to the workplace from November 1: anyone wishing to work on site must be vaccinated, recovered or tested. The federal government announced this in Vienna on Wednesday. This does not apply to people who work from home and employees who have no contact with co-workers – such as truck drivers. Compliance with the new rule should be verified by random samples. If there is no evidence, there is a risk of an administrative fine of 500 euros for employees and 3600 euros for employers.

The background is: After seven days of events in Austria for less than 150 weeks, it has risen in the last few days to 183 recently. Nearly 62 percent of the total Austrian population has full vaccine protection against Govt-19 (Switzerland: 62.5 percent). The Ministry of Health expects to introduce the 3G rule in the workplace to provide a further protection mechanism against the spread of the corona virus.

The result is as follows: “The initial reactions are very cautious,” said Eva Linsinger, head of the Department of Internal Affairs at the newspaper Profile. This is also the reason for the current political turmoil in Austria. “The president had to resign. So people have other concerns.” However, enforcing the 3G rule will be difficult. “I hope the opposition will grow,” Linsinger continued.

He refers to regional elections in Upper Austria. The anti-vaccine party has been in parliament there since the end of September. The preference for vaccination is generally low. “Some people have been vaccinated for a few weeks and the effect is already known. The number of new infections is increasing. That’s why I expect resistance to grow with 3G control.”

I expect resistance to grow with the 3G plan.

How to control 3G in the workplace: Regulation should be regulated by employers and employees, for example work councils. However, according to Linsinger, many are wondering how this will work in practice and how the restrictions for these regulations will work. “Especially in big companies with shift work”, he points out. Unlike other countries that already have such regulation, the unions in Austria are in favor of the regulation. This will soften the resistance.

The purpose of the measurement is: The 3G rule aims to encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated. In Italy, when the 3G rule was introduced it really sparked the vaccine boom. But the journalist is skeptical about Austria. “You can get a vaccine here in every corner: in supermarkets, in fitness studios – vaccination is not really that difficult. Yet no one does it.”

What happens if you disagree: Anyone who does not provide 3G certification or rejects trials permanently should expect not only fines but also consequences under labor law – including dismissal. “I am very interested, many experts, to see if this will be implemented very hard,” Linsinger says. In conclusion, there is still a transition period until mid-November: if you do not have 3G certification at this time, you should always work with the FFF2 mask.