Obligation, medical confidentiality … the questions raised by vaccination in the workplace

The executive is preparing to boost its vaccine strategy. After a chaotic start, with only a few hundred doses administered in the space of a week, the vaccination campaign launched in France is accelerating. Requested in the summer for tests, companies “who participate in the influenza vaccination strategy may, when the time comes, play a role”, said Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne, this Tuesday, January 5, on franceinfo. “When vaccination is generalized, they will be involved. I am in favor of companies being able to take their part”, she insisted.

The idea of ​​associating companies with vaccination against Covid-19 is, in any case, clearly on the table. “There was a meeting yesterday (Monday) evening with the Minister of Labor, who informed us of the decisions that were going to be taken. We discussed (vaccination in the workplace)”, declared on LCI Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT. “The government is considering the possibility of vaccinating employees”, he announced, specifying that, for the moment, “apparently it is not decided”.

Reserved for nursing home residents, those over 75 as well as firefighters and home helpers over 50, with a simplification of procedures, vaccination should not take place for a few months in companies. However, since December, certain large groups (Renault, Total and EDF) have been studying the possibility of offering their employees to vaccinate them during 2021. Concretely, nothing is against the vaccination of employees at their workplace. This type of provision already exists in many companies for epidemics of seasonal influenza.

In accordance with Article L. 4121-1 of the Labor Code, the employer must “take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers”, through preventive actions and the assessment of occupational risks. Vaccination for seasonal flu is part of this approach, resulting from a dialogue with the occupational physician and employees. This act cannot be performed only by a health professional, an occupational physician or a nurse. Nothing is imposed since it is a recommendation, not an obligation.

On November 24, President Emmanuel Macron let it be known that he was not going to “not make compulsory” vaccination against the coronavirus. In the particular case of companies, the Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne has since repeated, on multiple occasions, in the columns of South West in particular, that an employer “cannot impose the vaccine”.

Only the law or a binding text could change the situation. However, the obligation to be vaccinated against Covid-19 is by no means included in the Public Health Code, which materially determines the scope of health law. A boss cannot therefore force his employees to inject them with a dose of vaccine against the coronavirus. Non-vaccination should not result in a sanction or prevent an employee from returning to his workplace.

“All that is medical data must remain secret and in the office of the health professional”, indicated on LCI Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT, among the conditions for vaccination in business. Faced with the concern of employees to see their personal information, the Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne promised that the secrecy of the vaccination will be ensured. “We must remain attentive, as we are with tests when we do them in a company, whether on a voluntary basis and in compliance with medical confidentiality. Then, the employee is invited to inform his company , obviously, but it is not an obligation. There is no transmission, no violation of secrecy “, she asserted. “We will have to remain very vigilant.”

Furthermore, in occupational medicine, the health professional is subject to compliance with medical confidentiality in the same way as any other doctor. “The fact that a doctor is bound in his professional practice by a contract or a statute to another doctor, to an administration, a community or any other public or private body does not detract from his professional duties and in particular to its obligations regarding professional secrecy and the independence of its decisions “, specifies article 95 of Code of ethics. “Under no circumstances may the doctor accept any limitation on his independence in his medical practice on the part of the doctor, the company or the organization which employs him. He must always act, as a priority, in the interest of public health and in the interest of individuals and their safety within the companies or communities in which he practices. “