Employers can bar unvaccinated employees from the workplace, legal expert says
Employers can legally bar employees from the workplace if they refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19, a legal expert said Wednesday.
Speaking on ERT public radio, Professor of Constitutional Law Antonis Manitakis said that “any measure deemed necessary for the protection of public health – and which is backed by the health experts committee – is lawful.”
Manitakis disagreed with comments made by Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis who said that private businesses should have the right to fire workers who refuse to get vaccinated against the virus.
“Dismissing [unvaccinated workers] would be an extreme measure. [Such policy] is neither necessary, nor legal,” said Manitakis, a former interior minister, adding that companies can legally separate vaccinated and unvaccinated workers – by shift or floor, for example.
Companies can nevetheless legally require vaccines as a condition of employment, he said.
