Netherlands: Covid-19 Updates

During the press conference on 14 September 2021, the following was announced:

• The current advice on working from home (‘work at home as much as possible, unless work at home as much as possible, unless it is absolutely necessary’) will be adjusted. As of 25 September 2021, the new advice will be ‘work at home if you can and work at the office if necessary’. Employers and employees should arrange this together. Employers should prevent all employees from returning to the workplace at once.
• In the Netherlands, there is and will be no compulsory vaccination, not even for the workplace. Employers may, however, ask whether employees have been vaccinated, but employees are not obliged to answer this question. Employers are also not allowed to record whether employees have been vaccinated. However, in the future this might be different for the healthcare sector, because they often work with vulnerable people. The outgoing cabinet does want to offer employers in the healthcare sector the option of recording whether someone has been vaccinated. This can, for example, help in making schedules. This still needs to be worked out in more detail.
• In addition, the outgoing cabinet wants to explore whether and how the corona-certificate could be used in the healthcare sector and in other work situations.