According to an executive order published on Sunday, unvaccinated officers who had been suspended during the pandemic will be able to return to their services. Date, number of people concerned, conditions… Franceinfo answers the questions that arise.
They will be able to return to their hospital or healthcare establishment. Almost two years after being suspended from duty for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine, a few thousand caregivers will be able to be reinstated. A decree from the Ministry of Health, published on Sunday May 14 in the Official Journal, suspended “the obligation of vaccination against Covid-19”. This provision is effective from the day after its publication, i.e. Monday.
On March 30, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommended lifting this constraint. A change to which the French are also favorable: according to a recent Ifop poll (PDF), “nearly four out of five French people (79%) say they are personally in favor of the reintegration into their jobs of non-vaccinated caregivers”. A reintegration which however raises some questions to which franceinfo provides answers.
1 From when will unvaccinated caregivers be able to be reinstated?
Since the vaccination obligation has been lifted, employers are required to offer their suspended carers a reinstatement, “as soon as possible and if possible within two weeks” after the date of publication of the decree with regard to public establishments, according to a ministerial instruction consulted by AFP. In fact, a number of health establishments have already recontacted the suspended caregivers to prepare for their return.
2 How many people are affected?
At the end of 2021, France had imposed a vaccination obligation on nearly 2.7 million people, caregivers, but also hospital and retirement home workers, paramedics, home helpers and even firefighters. According to the partial indications provided by the Ministry of Health, a very small proportion of caregivers refused the vaccine and were suspended, and only a few thousand people would be affected. Some “99% of caregivers have been vaccinated”affirmed again at the beginning of May the minister delegate in charge of healthcare personnel, Agnes Firmin-Le Bodo.
In March, the Ministry of Health estimated that“around 0.3%” hospital agents had been suspended for having refused the vaccination obligation. Elsa Ruillère, suspended caregiver and elected from the CGT Santé, figures for her part the number of people suspended from “between 20,000 and 40,000”. “The ministry forgets the private sector and the associations”, believes this hospital management assistant, quoted by AFP. So many people who largely want to return to work: according to Elsa Ruillère, alone “about 1/5th” suspended caregivers has definitely given up on his original profession. Of the reintegrated caregivers, just over half should return to their jobs, she estimates.
3 Will the suspended caregivers return to the position they occupied before?
In principle, the suspended agent has the right to resume his duties in the position he occupied. A “equivalent position” may be offered to him, provided that he is located in the same geographical location. Assignment to a “equivalent position” must be motivated by a service operating constraint (for example if the person’s former position is now occupied) and must not present any “discriminatory”. Periods of suspension do not give rise to any right to leave, pension or promotion.
Some doctors, such as Rémi Salomon, president of the Conference of Presidents of Medical Commissions for University Hospitals, have mentioned the idea “that these caregivers are not in departments where there are patients at risk”cited The Parisian.
If, however, the agent refuses the position offered, in the public, he can be removed from the executives for abandonment of position, after a simple formal notice. Before coming to this end, officials can resort to a national mediation procedure. Contractual termination is also possible, with the exception of hospital practitioners (doctors from the public hospital). In the private sector, the ministerial instruction indicates that the “conventional break” may be a solution, without going into details.
4 Under what conditions will they regain their service?
While the Minister of Health, François Braun, had declared at the end of April that “the unvaccinated [seraient] not necessarily expected with flowers in all departments and everywhere”, the reception conditions raise questions. The emergency doctor Mathias Wargon thus criticized in a column published by The world the return of unvaccinated caregivers. “The less militant will return to a hospital in great suffering, which will probably be happy to welcome them”but “more difficult will be the reintegration of those who campaigned against vaccines and barrier measures”he wrote. “Why come back when you think medicine is a big conspiracy and colleagues are sheep?”, he asks. At the end of March, the National Union of Nursing Professionals (SNPI) also castigated the recommendation of the HAS to lift the vaccination obligation, denouncing a “derivative”.
“There will always be a few sideways glances, but many people” will welcome non-vaccinated people without any problem, believes for her part Elsa Ruillère, who says she had no problem when she returned to her post after being sick with Covid (unvaccinated people who contracted the disease could indeed be reinstated temporarily).
5 Is the return of unvaccinated caregivers final?
No. If the pandemic starts again, the government has the possibility of suspending the caregivers concerned again. “The decree will only suspend the suspensions, leaving the possibility to the government” to resort to it again, thus criticized the Guyanese deputy member of the Nupes Jean-Victor Castor. A bill passed by the National Assembly on the initiative of his group thus proposes to definitively repeal this possibility of suspension, but the government opposes it and it has not yet been discussed in the Senate.