Council of State: Extension of mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers is unconstitutional

The possibility of returning to work for health workers who have not been vaccinated opens the relevant decision of the Council of State, which ruled unconstitutional the extension until the end of the year for the compulsory vaccination of health workers.

The decision of the seven-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that the extension of the compulsory vaccination is unlawful due to the lack of reassessment of the measure.

In particular, it was held that the provision of Law no. 4917/2022, which extended the validity of the reassessment of the compulsory vaccination of workers in health care facilities until 31-12-2022, is contrary to the constitutional principle of proportionality.

At the same time, the State Councillors annulled the ministerial decision that determined the procedure for the recruitment of temporary staff in accordance with the provisions of article 50 of Law No. 4825/2021.

Before ruling, the competent Chamber of the CoE took into account previous decisions of the Plenary Session which had held that measures taken to protect public health against coronavirus, such as the mandatory vaccination of workers, must be periodically reviewed by the competent state bodies depending on the existing epidemiological data and the evolution of valid scientific assumptions.

With these data, as the State Counsellors note in their decision, a period of more than 8 months has already elapsed since the adoption of the measure of compulsory vaccination of employees in health care facilities, i.e. «a period which, due to the nature of the measure and its consequences, the nature of the measure and its consequences clearly exceeds what is reasonable, without, however, having been reassessed on the basis of scientific and epidemiological data which were up to date at the time on the value, effectiveness and consequences of vaccines against coronavirus and on the course and development of the pandemic».

According to the State Counselors, it is also not clear «on the basis of which specific scientific data the time of the reassessment was extended until 31-12-2022, i.e. it was placed in a time that also exceeds the reasonable time, in view of the fact that it is 9 months from the enactment of Law No. 4917/2022».The Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees (PDEDIN) had appealed to the Council of State, requesting that the decision of 14.4.2022 of the Minister of Health be annulled.

The PDEDIN had appealed to the Council of State and asked to annul the decision of 14.4.2022 of the Minister of Health.