Unvaccinated healthcare workers: Plevris' conditions for their return to the National Health System

Health Minister Thanos Plevris will attempt to circumvent the Council of State's decision rejecting the extension of the work suspension measure for unvaccinated healthcare workers, by any means and excuse, as he admitted in an interview with SKAI 100.3.

When asked what the Ministry of Health would do following the Council of State's decision, Mr. Plevris stated that «the Council of State told us that we must review the measure. The review was conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Greek Parliament. Based on the excerpt we have—because we are awaiting the decision—the Council of State has two considerations:

considers that there is no explanatory statement regarding the eight-month extension
He says that the evidence we brought him, evidence from the period in question when the decision was made, the quarter of 2022, is not sufficient, that it is proportional to the measure.

At the end of the excerpt, it says, “In any case, we believe that the evidence presented to us does not justify the extension of the measure.”.

Nevertheless, Mr. Plevris insisted that the Council of State, in its plenary session, had ruled that the measure was constitutional in principle with regard to the suspension and that in the March extension «we did nothing different from what the Council of State in its plenary session ruled constitutional. Now, for his own reasons, which are respected ... as Minister of Health, I am obliged to implement a decision that the judges of the Council of State ruled was not a proportionate measure ... but it is clear that I will implement it in such a way that the risk to public health will be as low as possible.».

The Council of State ruled that «first of all, we are waiting for the decision to see exactly what it requires us to do. We will comply with the decision. But compliance will be subject to terms, conditions, and protocols that will pose the least possible risk to public health,» he reiterated, and then went a step further. «I hope that the reasoning behind the decision leaves us with some room to come back in some way. If it does not leave us with that room... we will implement the decision. However, under no circumstances will we allow the implementation of the decision to be detrimental to public health. We will take whatever measures are necessary to mitigate the negative consequences.».