Current: Employers’ obligation to check the OTP regime

Čo v článku nájdete:

Employer checks

Employers must check whether an employee is:

• fully vaccinated,
• recovered from COVID-19 and within the “period” of 180 days after recovery,
• negative on a test.

If an employee is not within the OTP regime (COVID measures), the employer must provide an opportunity to be tested. If the employee refuses, the employer must not allow the employee to enter the workplace. This is an obstacle to work on the employee’s side without wage compensation, unless the employer agrees otherwise with the employee.

Employee testing

Under the Manual of the Ministry of Economy, the employer must provide the tests. Antigen tests are sufficient for checking compliance with the OTP obligation.

The employer must also provide a testing area and appoint an authorised person to supervise the test and record its result. The Manual includes a test certificate that the authorised person issues to the employee, including the authorised person’s signature. For tested employees, this certificate is a “pass” for entering work during the week and proof of OTP compliance.

An alternative is OTP COVID testing at a mobile collection point. In that case, the employee proves compliance with a certificate issued at the collection point or through a mobile application.

Employer reimbursement of self-tests or tests

The State provides financial compensation for tests performed under the Manual. The compensation is €6: €5 for the test and €1 for performing the test.

The State also reimburses the same amount for tests performed through a mobile collection point.

Records must be kept to receive compensation or reimbursement. The records contain the first name, surname, birth number, testing date and test result.

Recommendations for employers

For larger companies, we recommend testing on site because tests commonly cost more than the amount reimbursed by the State, where this is possible. The authorised person may be, for example, an employee responsible for occupational health and safety or occupational health services.

In smaller companies without sufficient internal capacity, testing at a mobile collection point places less burden on the company.

For the security of employees’ personal data, we recommend measures ensuring that only an authorised employee works with the testing database. We also recommend preparing an information obligation specifically for employee testing, recording these new processing operations.