Invited by franceinfo this Tuesday, January 4, the Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, spoke of the new isolation rules for contact and sick cases of Covid-19 in companies. “It is not the employer who will define the duration of isolation according to the vaccination status, it is the employee in connection with the Health Insurance. When there is contact, he can continue to work… He does not have to warn his employer. You don’t have to give your employer your vaccination status. We come back to the rules which existed and which did not pose any problems “, said the minister.
In fact, it is more complicated. If there is no vaccination obligation, and therefore no compulsory communication around vaccination status, the employer has a legal obligation to protect its employees. As for the employee, he is required to take care, according to his possibilities, of his own health and that of the people affected by his actions at work. It is also strongly recommended that employees and employers cooperate to avoid clusters at work. franceinfo takes stock of the different scenarios.
If the employee is positive for Covid-19
With a full vaccination, one should self-isolate between five and seven days, depending on symptoms and test results. Otherwise, a seven to ten day isolation period must be observed. In theory, the essential goes through the doctor and the health insurance. But in practice, the employee is strongly encouraged to warn his employer and his colleagues, in order to facilitate the search for contact cases and to decide on the measures to be taken, recalls the Ministry of Health.
If the employee is vaccinated and contact case
The employee can continue to work, since he is no longer required to isolate himself. The obligation is to do a test immediately and self-tests two and four days after the first screening. But if the employee has the possibility, it is strongly recommended that he telework, if this was not already the case. Which actually means that this employee is a contact case. And if it is not possible to telecommute, we must pay even more attention to barrier gestures at work, adds the Ministry of Health on its website. This means wearing the mask in all circumstances, having a dedicated office if this is not the case, favoring contacts by phone or video, or even having lunch alone rather than with colleagues. So it is cComplicated, under these conditions, not to warn his employer.
If the employee is a contact case and not vaccinated, or if he has an incomplete vaccination
In this case, it is imperative to isolate yourself, for seven days, and do a test at the end of the isolation. If you cannot telecommute, that effectively amounts to preventing you from having to isolate yourself. Some occupational physicians and employers fear that, through reluctance to reveal, even indirectly, that he is not vaccinated, an employee in contact with him will not say so, not isolate himself and still come to his place of work.