TEL AVIV. A worker who does not present the vaccination certificate or a negative swab can be suspended. It is the decision of the Tel Aviv Labor Court, which yesterday rejected the appeal of a kindergarten teacher against her employer, which had suspended it last month. The municipality where the teacher works, like many others, has in fact established that school staff who do not intend to get vaccinated must have a negative swab. The judge ruled that “the right to privacy of the worker does not exceed the right to life of the pupils, parents and other staff, as well as the right of the Municipality to defend them”.
The vaccine conundrum for Israel
of Meir Ouziel
It should be noted that in Israel there is still no law regulating the matter and the judge has urged the legislative authority to fill the vacuum so as not to leave such a delicate matter to the discretion of legal precedents. For this reason, the judge also established that the teacher has the right to receive the salary for the days in which she has not worked until the sentence and, from this moment, she is instead suspended using her vacation days, but cannot be fired. .
“Those phone calls at 3 am”, so Netanyahu convinced Pfizer to focus on Israel as a showcase
by Sharon Nizza
The lawyer Naama Shabetai, who represents the municipality, argues that this is an “important precedent with projections on all sectors of the economy”. By establishing that, as an alternative to the vaccine, it is possible to present a tampon per week, “the court creates the right balance between workers’ rights and the public good. Every worker has the right to choose whether to get vaccinated or not, but cannot exempt himself from assuming responsibility for his own decision and cannot place this responsibility on the employer, who instead must have as objective the protection of workers and the public “.
In recent weeks, after an unvaccinated nurse tested positive leading to the isolation of several patients and medical staff, Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem had forced 80 workers who do not intend to be vaccinated to take mandatory holidays. There have been no appeals at the moment, but it is likely that, until an ad hoc law is formulated, the Tel Aviv ruling will serve as a legal precedent for similar cases.
Israel, with 50% of the population vaccinated with both doses of Pfizer, has gradually reopened all sectors of the economy for a month without the new gatherings causing an increase in infections, which are actually decreasing steadily. Some services are subject to the presentation of the green pass, which allows entry only to those who present the certificate of recovery from Covid or the certificate of immunity, which is obtained one week after the administration of the second dose. This category includes restaurants (only for closed spaces), gyms, hotels, cultural and sporting events. Since yesterday, it is also possible to access these services by undergoing a quick antigen test: the results are guaranteed within 15-30 minutes and the cost varies from € 10 to € 20 depending on the company. With these tests, yesterday children under 16 who still cannot be immunized entered the stadium for the first time in a year. However, currently rapid swabs – unlike PCR swabs – are not subsidized by the state and “the expectation is that market forces will manage the cost, as happened with masks,” according to Tomer Lotan, head of the task. anti Covid force that assists the government. The spokesperson for Sofia, one of the rapid swab companies active on the market, says they are in talks with the Ministry of Health to subsidize the rapid tests at least for children’s activities, “since children are unable to access the vaccine, it is not right for families to be penalized for this “.
.