Covid-sick workers complain employers urge them to go work in violation of health protocols

There have been serious complaints that employers in Greece are forcing their employees to go to work thought they are tested positive to Covid-19. According to media, some of the complaints refer to a well-known chain of stores.

The employers’ advice to sick employees is “Take a Paracetamol and come to work!”, reports daily ethnos on Tuesday.

The arbitrariness in the labor market has apparently also to do with the fact that the government has failed so far to issue an official directive with regards to what kind of a Covid-test is needed to confirm Covid-illness especially for workers who do not want to miss their salary payment.

Vaccinated workers do not need a molecular PCR test to be covered at work if they get coronavirus, but a positive Rapid test, which will be posted on the electronic system by pharmacists or diagnostic centers, deputy health minister Mina Gaga said last week.

Unvaccinated workers will have to undergo a PCR test, and if it is positive, submit to the registration system in order to receive a 5-day of paid leave.

As there is no official directive and the registration system is not upgraded to accept also positive Rapid-test, the whole issue is open to employers’ arbitration, no matter what the infection price.

At the same time, businesses, shops and restaurants are reportedly operating with obstacles due to the mandatory 5-day quarantine of thousands of employees who have been diagnosed positive for coronavirus.

Sources from the sector have told ethnos that they cut days off of healthy employees and they make replacements.

“If infection cases increase in the coming days, we will find ourselves at a dead end. Many small shops that operate only with the owner and one person as staff may be temporarily closed,” they said.

Interesting is that two young men working on the delivery sector told us that workers in the sector get infected one after the other and there are difficulties to find staff to replace them and continue with the smooth operation of delivery.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant seems to affect more and more people, according to the latest information, the number of cases on Tuesday is expected to reach or exceed 50,000 confirmed cases. A new all times negative record for Greece.