Covid-19 Vaccination In Romania ' Frequently Asked Employee-Related Questions

• Published date: 14 January 2021
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Health & Safety, Government Measures, Employment and Workforce Wellbeing
• Law Firm: Kinstellar
• Author: Ms Madalina Anghenie and Alexandra-Ioana Popescu

January 2021 - In December 2020 Romania announced its official vaccination strategy against Covid-19 (the "Strategy") developed by the National Committee for the Coordination of Activities on Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 ' an inter-ministerial body directly subordinated to the General Secretariat of the government and coordinated by the prime minister.

The Strategy establishes the principles, vision and mode of action for the administration of Covid-19 vaccines in Romania and aims to ensure access to vaccination against Covid-19 under the conditions of safety, efficacy and equity.

According to the Strategy, vaccination is not mandatory. Vaccinations will be administered in three stages:

(i) in the first stage, the vaccine will be administrated mainly to personnel from the medical and social systems (e.g., physicians, personnel from nursing centres);

(ii) in the second stage, the vaccine will be administrated mainly to at-risk populations (e.g., elders over the age of 65, people with chronic diseases) and personnel performing activities in key, essential domains (e.g. parliament, government, national security);

(iii) in the third stage, the vaccine will be administrated to the general population.

The Romanian government has also launched an online platform dedicated to the vaccination campaign, where people may find information about the vaccination centres and will be able to register themselves to receive the vaccine.

As a general note, the vaccination of employees against Covid-19 is currently the subject of much debate in Romania, given that the vaccination is voluntary. Public officials have thus far not offered a straight answer in relation to the possibility of employers requiring the mandatory vaccination of employees.

At present, the main questions related to the vaccination of employees in Romania include:

Can an employer require candidates to be vaccinated as a condition of hire?

Until further governmental measures are taken and/or further clarifications are provided by the authorities, imposing vaccination as a condition of hire is not recommended, as this could trigger various claims from the applicants (mainly on discrimination grounds).

The rejected candidate (due to the unwillingness to be vaccinated) could claim that he/she was discriminated against, while, under Romanian law, any difference, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion, social status, beliefs, gender, sexual...