French healthcare staff who refused Covid jab allowed back to work

Healthcare workers in France suspended after refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 were allowed back to work on Monday following a government decree over the weekend.

A patient receives medical care at the Rene-Dubos hospital in Pontoise, north-west Paris in July, 2022. AP - Goeffroy van der Hasselt

“The obligation to be vaccinated against Covid-19, as laid down in article 12 of 5 August 2021, is suspended,” reads the decree published in the Official Journal on Saturday night.

From Monday their employers must offer to reintegrate them as soon as possible.

The suspension of unvaccinated healthcare workers and caregivers has impacted 2.7 million people since August 2021 – those in direct contact with patients, such as care workers, nurses, doctors, ambulance drives, home helps, firefighters – but also admin workers in health structures.

Around 3,000 people refused the jab and were suspended.

• France suspends 3,000 unvaccinated health workers without pay

According to figures garnered from the Ministry of Health, this represented only 0.3 percent of hospital workers and a similar proportion of the self-employed.

However, the health branch of the hardline CGT union gave a higher figure, at between 20,000 to 40,000.

Suspension only

The decision to lift the vaccine obligation followed a recommendation by France's health advisory body (HAS). 

In a statement published on 30 March, it advised that vaccination against Covid-19 be "strongly recommended" rather than imposed.

The HAS also underlined that "lifting a vaccination obligation for professionals does not call into question the benefits of vaccination".

Some health professionals criticised the HAS stance on the grounds vaccine-scepticism had no place in the medical profession.

But those refusing Covid jabs also invoked the right to bodily autonomy and freedom of choice.

• Coercive health pass galvanises new wave of French resistance

Legally speaking the government has only supended the obligation and could reinstate it if the pandemic returns, without the need for a parliamentary vote.

A draft bill proposed by the Communist Party to repeal compulsory Covid vaccination, and which would ban any return to suspending health workers, was adopted by France's lower house on 4 May.

The bill still has to be examined by the Senate but the government is opposed to any such repeal.