Self-test: Which employees are required to take it starting Monday – Heavy fines

New «health passport» for those employees, will in the near future be the self-test. Starting on Monday, 19 April, when six sectors of economic activity will be included in the scope of the measure, to be followed by others in due course.

The six sectors are:

• Retail trade (including supermarkets and food and beverage outlets)
• Focus
• Transport (land, sea, air, etc.)
• Cleaning services
• Hairdressing salons, barber shops and beauty centres
• Gambling and betting services

Employees will log in to the platform and select the outcome statement for employees. They will be transferred to the relevant platform of the ERGANI, Mr. Hatzidakis, estimating that everything will run smoothly.

The fines for offenders

• The employer MUST NOT employ a physically present employee if the employee has not taken the self-test and has not declared the result. And much more obviously, if the employee has declared a positive self-test.
• If the employee comes to work without having declared the result of the self-test, the employer is obliged to refuse to provide the work and is exempted from the obligation to pay wages until the employee complies with his/her obligations.
• If the employer fails to comply with the obligation to inform its employees by any appropriate means (email, e-mail, notice, etc.) about the mandatory self-tests, a fine of 300 euros is imposed by the SEPE.
• If an audit by the SEPE finds an employer who employs an employee who has not declared a self-test result, a fine of EUR 500 per employee is imposed.
• If an employer is found who employs a worker with a positive self-test (either in the first or in the retest), a fine of EUR 1500 per employee is imposed.

How the new system will work

The system will work as follows:

1. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will send to the EDIKA the employees' social security numbers employed in employers' undertakings in the sectors I have just mentioned, as registered in the ERGANI system.
2. Every week the Ministry will update the data of the employees, sending to EDIKA any changes, i.e. new recruitments, terminations of employment contracts, etc.
3. Workers engaged in the activities referred to above are subject to the measure of mandatory self test. They can obtain the tests free of charge from the pharmacy, using their social security number. If for some reason the employee chooses to have a rapid or molecular test instead of a self-test (at their own or their employer's expense), they have this option. The employee reports the test result to the EMPLOYER's PC using the procedure I will describe below.
4. Employees will enter the online platform self-testing.gov.gr and select «Self test result declaration for employee». They will then go to the supportemployees.gov.gr platform and to the COVID-19 test result declaration in the ERGANI system. There they will submit the test result by completing the special form «Employee Declaration of COVID-19 result recording».
5. If the result of the self-test is negative, it is understood that the worker normally comes to work.
6. If the result of the self-test is positive, the employee will have to take a repeat test within 24 hours, either at a free public facility (among those listed on the self-testing.gov.gr platform) or at a private facility of his/her choice (at his/her own or his/her employer's expense). Pending the result of the second test, the worker and his/her family members stay at home in quarantine.
7. If the result of the second repeat test is positive, a certificate is issued, which is a justification for placing the employee in quarantine in accordance with the EODY protocol.
8. If the result of the second check is negative, a certificate is issued again and the employee must return to work.
9. The result of the retest is obligatory to be declared in the COVID-19 test result declaration platform, by completing the special form «Employee Declaration of COVID-19 result recording after a positive self-test result".
10. The employers are obliged to inform the their employees about their obligation to self-test and the consequences of not complying with the obligation.
11. It is noted that pharmacists will also be informed through the EDIKA platform about which employees are beneficiaries of the self-test.