|
 Perotti will only be allowed back if she gets the shot. During her
suspension, her salary will be withheld, as will contributions to
her pension. She said she would not be entitled to claim
unemployment benefits or to offset any of the period with paid
annual leave.
It left her with little choice but to quit the health sector,
Perotti said.
"I'm disgusted. In any case, there's nothing I can do. I just have
to accept it," she said after walking out of the Hopital Baujon in
Clichy, a working-class Paris suburb.
Under a government mandate
https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-health-coronavirus-france-vaccination/factbox-european-nations-plans-for-coping-with-covid-19-idUSKBN2GB0Y3?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews,
all healthcare and care home workers
https://www.reuters.com/business/
healthcare-pharmaceuticals/french-care-home-some-staff-quit-over-vaccine-mandate-2021-09-15,
home aids and paramedics had to have received at least their first
COVID-19 shot by Sept. 15.
President Emmanuel Macron's government imposed the rule to boost
vaccination uptake and help prevent a new wave of infections in the
autumn that might jeopardise France's economic recovery.
Perotti is among a small minority of healthcare workers refusing the
vaccine. French authorities said that, as of Sept. 7, 84% of staff
in nursing homes and hospitals had received both COVID-19 doses.
[to top of second column] |
"I'm not going to force myself to get injected
with something just to work," Perotti told
Reuters a day earlier during a union-led
protest.
"Maybe it's harmful, maybe it's not, but I don't
want anyone to impose it on me. It's not
ethical, we're free to do what we want with our
bodies."
Macron has said
freedoms come with responsibilities during a time of health crisis,
including a duty to protect the elderly and vulnerable. Perotti said
her work as a secretary meant she did not come into contact with
poorly patients.
A health ministry letter to local health authorities and healthcare
establishments said suspensions would last until the staff member
got vaccinated and that the mandate would remain in place even after
wider health pass rules expired in November.
"It's over," Perotti said, referring to her career in hospitals.
"I'm not sure how I'll cope, but I tell myself that every day is a
new day."
(Reporting by Antony Paone; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by
Alex Richardson)
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