Top court: vaccine mandate for healthcare workers legal

The government mandate requiring health-care workers to get vaccinated against Covid is not unconstitutional, as it serves the smooth functioning of the health-care system, the Constitutional Court ruled on Friday.

Under the government decree making Covid vaccination mandatory for health-care workers, those refusing to get the jab are to be fired and are not entitled to severance pay.

Health-care employees lodged hundreds of appeals

with the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the mandate.

Government not to follow Austrian restrictions

In its Friday resolution, the court rejected the complaints, saying that the vaccine mandate served to guarantee the smooth functioning of the health-care system, patient safety and the enforcement of patients’ right to life and health.

The vaccine mandate for health-care workers is constitutional and a “proportionate restriction”,

the court ruled.

The Constitutional Court also cited the World Health Organization’s (WHO) position that public health goals such as the containment of a pandemic warrant the use of legal coercion as a last resort.