No salary for unvaccinated people in quarantine

Can the employer cancel the salary?
The national football player Joshua Kimmich of the record champion FC Bayern Munich is unvaccinated, according to his own statements.

During a trip to the national team at the beginning of November, he had contact with a club colleague who had tested positive for Corona. As a result, he had to go into domestic quarantine and was not allowed to participate in the upcoming matches of the national team and his club. Due to a later further contact with a person who tested positive in his private environment, Kimmich’s period of quarantine was renewed.

The footballer’s employer, FC Bayern München, subsequently decided to dock Kimmich’s pay and that of other colleagues who had not been vaccinated for the duration of the quarantine ordered by the authorities. The measure was intended to increase the pressure on the remaining unvaccinated players in order to prevent individual players from being regularly unavailable to the employer for assignments in the Bundesliga or Champions League.

From a legal point of view, the question arises whether it is lawful for employers to act in this way towards their employees.
The German Civil Code (BGB) stipulates that employees who do not perform their work do not receive a salary.
However, the Infection Protection Act (Infektionsschutzgesetz, IfSG) stipulates that those who have to go into quarantine by order of the authorities should not be subject to any loss of wages. Affected workers are therefore paid monetary compensation.

However, the IfSG has an exception since summer 2020. According to this, no monetary compensation is paid to anyone who could have avoided quarantine by taking advantage of a vaccination that was publicly recommended in the area of the affected person’s usual place of residence. Kimmich could therefore have avoided his quarantine by taking advantage of a Corona vaccination. There is therefore a legal basis for not paying the salary for the period of quarantine for unvaccinated persons.

In the meantime, it has become known that the footballer Kimmich is actually currently ill with Corona. Kimmich, and workers in general, whether vaccinated or not, will receive compensation for this period of absence from work through continued payment of wages in the event of illness.

Author: Patrick Stumpp