Law on Regulation of the Illegal Framework of Employment

On Thursday, November 4, in the second - final - reading, the Saeima supported the amendments to the Law on the Management of the Spread of COVID-19 Infection, which determine the regulation of employment relationships in cases when a certificate certifying vaccination against Covid-19 or the recovery from this infection is required. There were 52 votes in favor, 27 against and two abstentions.

Although officially the amendments to the law are referred to as the regulation of the legal framework of employment relationships, these amendments can also be referred to as the “regulation of the illegal framework of employment relationships”.

The changes stipulate that the employer will have to determine the positions or categories of employees that are subject to the requirements and conditions specified in regulatory enactments regarding the need for a vaccination or recovery certificate, and inform the employees thereof. Employees, in turn, will be obliged to inform the employer whether they have a vaccination or recovery certificate and to present the said certificate to the employer in accordance with the procedures specified therein. In the event that the staff member has not obtained the vaccination or recovery certificate required for the performance of his duties, there will be sufficient grounds for believing that the person concerned is unfit for the work. If it is not possible to transfer the employee to another suitable job or to ensure the performance of duties remotely for objective reasons, the employer will have the right to suspend the employee for a period not exceeding three months until the vaccination or recovery certificate is obtained. If, after this time, the employee has not obtained the required certificate without a justifiable objective reason, the employer will have the right to terminate the employment relationship immediately by paying the employee a severance pay equal to one month's salary.

From November 15, 2021, employees of state and local government institutions (including capital companies) will be able to perform their work duties only if they have a vaccination or recovery certificate. From December 15, employees in the private sector will only be able to work in person if they have a vaccination or recovery certificate.

Tests will no longer be good enough. In Latvia, antibodies that occur in the human body after recovering from Covid have no significance. In Estonia and Lithuania, antibodies are important and a person can receive a certificate for a certain period of time. But in Latvia, you can't and that's it. On November 4, a proposal on antibodies was made in the Saeima by Ivars Zariņš, a member of the opposition party (Harmony, Saskaņa), but the idea was again rejected.

The amendments to the law are harsh and are in line with the government's and the ruling coalition's policy to maximize "vaccination coverage" by introducing measures that either benefit the vaccinated or significantly restrict the unvaccinated.

Be that as it may! Covid numbers are still not good - it is not long until the end of the lockdown, but the number of new cases is still high. And many still die. But there is also good news - the morbidity curve looks like it has turned downwards, Latvia is no longer in the first place in the world among the newly discovered cases. The first is now Estonia.

The number of people who have received at least the first dose of the vaccine is also not small - 63.6%. The surge has been rapid. Previously, Latvia lagged behind the European Union in this indicator, but now it is not far off from the United States (66.2%).

This shows that there are not as many fanatical deniers of vaccination and Covid in Latvia as it might seem if you read social networks. Many have been careless about their health. They have thought that "I'll go get vaccinated someday", or they have thought to wait and see what will happen to others who have been vaccinated. But this is not the attitude of the Latvian society only towards Covid - the Latvian society burns last year's grass, drives like crazy, goes ice fishing without waiting for the ice to fully freeze, and does not vaccinate against tick-borne encephalitis.

Meanwhile, the Saeima can no longer interrupt what has been started and continues to pressure the population, writing in the law that employers can dismiss unvaccinated employees.

This is an instance when the sword has a double-edged blade. Of course, there are positions and jobs in the private sector where it is better if a worker has a Covid certificate - all kinds of working with people, sales, on-site customer service.

At the same time, the amendments to the Law on the Management of the Spread of COVID-19 Infection literally delete and tarnish the provisions of the Labor Law. After all, this law is still in force. For example, Article 7 (2) states that the rights of the worker must be guaranteed without any direct or indirect discrimination - irrespective of a person's race, skin colour, gender, age, disability, religious, political or other conviction, ethnic or social origin, property or marital status, sexual orientation or other circumstances.

What to do with it? It is to be hoped that there are lawyers in parliament who are thinking about this and will be able to prevent conflicts between the current Covid-19 laws and regulations that were in force before Covid.

I'm semi-joking, but the fact is that employers have the right to fire employees without the certificate. However, do employees at least have the right to ask the employer if they also have the certificate?