CovidCheck will soon be mandatory for employees at the employer’s premises
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Covid-19 coronavirus – hot topics from a Luxembourg law perspective
The introduction of the mandatory CovidCheck regime at the workplace as of 15 January 2022, is taking shape. On 10 December 2021, the Luxembourg government supplemented Bill 7924 by adding the necessary provisions to render the CovidCheck regime compulsory at the workplace.
Here are the main rules:
- To be able to access their place of work, all employees, interns, pupils and students must be able to present either
- a vaccination certificate with a QR code
- a certificate of recovery with a QR code
- a Covid-19 test certificate with a QR code (the validity of which is 48 hours for a PCR test and 24 hours for an antigen test)
- a certificate of contraindication to vaccination against Covid-19, accompanied by a Covid-19 test certificate or the negative result of a self-diagnostic test carried out onsite.
- The employer must verify the identity of the holders of the above-mentioned certificates by requesting a proof of identity (any official document with of a photograph, e.g. driving license).
- A list of vaccinated or recovered employees can be drawn up, with only the name of the employees and the period of validity of the certificate. This list can be drawn up as of the entry into effect of the law and even before 15 January 2022. Each employee's consent must have been obtained beforehand.
- Verification of the CovidCheck certificates and the employees’ identity as well as the drawing up of the above-mentioned list can be delegated by the employer internally to one or several employees or to an external third party.
- The CovidCheck certificates can be verified any time at the workplace. This does not necessarily need to be upon arrival at the workplace or at the entrance to the premises.
- An employee who does not want or cannot present a valid certificate or identity document will not be able to access the workplace.
- An employee for whom no other solution has been found (leave, teleworking), automatically loses the entitlement to the remuneration corresponding to the hours not worked.
- The employee remains registered with social security and the period of non-remuneration is treated as a period of actual work notably for the calculating of annual leave entitlements and for rights linked to the employee’s seniority.
- The employee’s failure to present a valid certificate and the resulting absence from work do not constitute valid grounds for dismissal or disciplinary sanctions. The employee can request the annulment of such dismissal.
- The employer has no legal obligation to bear the costs of PCR or antigen tests.
- Failure by the employer to comply with the above-mentioned control obligations can be sanctioned with a fine of maximum € 4,000.
- As the CovidCheck regime is mandatory, no notification to the Department of Health is required.
- The Inspection du travail et des mines (ITM) is responsible for checking that employees present at their workplace have one of the required certificates.
It is important to note that the above measures are only at the stage of draft legislation. One will have to wait for the law to be passed before these measures can be implemented in practice. We expect the law to be passed before 19 December 2021 (the current CovidCheck law will expire on 18 December 2021).