Work during the emergency situation

• If an employee falls ill outside of work, they must stay at home.

• If an employee falls ill at work, they must leave immediately.

• A person who has fallen ill should contact their family doctor, who will decide on the diagnosis of COVID-19, the need for testing and the certificate of incapacity for work.

• The employee whose COVID-19 test is positive has to stay home for at least five days (even if there are no symptoms). It is allowed to return to work presuming that on the last day at least 24 hours have passed since the symptoms passed.

• From the perspective of stopping the spread of COVID-19 it is important that the employee who has become ill inform the employer if his COVID-19 diagnosis has been confirmed. Informing the employer takes place according to an agreement between the employee and the employer. In order to stop the further spread of the virus, it is necessary to quickly start establishing the close contacts (see below).

• In the rooms that have been potentially contaminated with the virus it is necessary to clean the surfaces that are touched more frequently. In favorable conditions the virus can stay on contaminated surfaces for up to three days but is destroyed with wet cleaning and disinfecting (see instructions "The recommendation of the Health Board for cleaning and disinfecting" (in Estonian)).

Close contacts

• If the diagnosis of COVID-19 is confirmed, people who were together with the infected employee for at least 15 minutes and within two meters, or were in direct close contact with him (shaking hands, getting coughed on etc.) during the period when the symptoms occurred or up to two days before that should be identified at the workplace. If the employee was not symptomatic, his close contacts are considered to be those who were in close contact with him two days before receiving the positive test result. More specific information on how close contacts are determined can be found on the web page of the Health Board.

• It is recommended that close contacts stay in self-isolation for five days and monitor their health carefully. It is not necessary to adhere to the recommendation to stay at one's place of residence or stay, if the person has:

  • been vaccinated (or equated to a vaccinated person) and has received a booster dose, and no more than a year has passed since the shot;
  • completed the initial course of vaccinations and no more than nine months (270 days) have passed since the last dose;
  • been equated to a vaccinated person (i.e. recovered from the disease and received one dose of the vaccine) and no more than nine months (270 days) have passed since the last shot
  • recovered from COVID-19 within the past six months (180 days)

• If the diagnosis of COVID-19 of an infected employee is not confirmed, the recommendation on avoiding contacts is not implemented for the close contacts.

An employer can find more information from the instructions of the Health Board (in Estonian).

Last updated: 21.09.2022 12:10

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Yes, an unvaccinated person may keep going to work if the employer's risk analysis has reached the conclusion that the risk related to the spread of the virus have been lowered sufficiently with other pre-emptive measures like the use of personal protective equipment (e.g. a mask, a visor, a protective glass), reorganisation of work (e.g. dispersion, distance work) or regular testing of employees.

If the risk analysis has established that vaccination against the coronavirus is necessary for carrying out the professional duties safely and it is not possible to lower the risks with other measures or reorganise the work in any other way, the employer, in substantiated cases, has the right to issue a warning to the person, explain the possible consequences and as a last resort, to cancel the employment contract extraordinarily.

The employer, on the other hand, can help the employees to find answers to different vaccination-related questions and lower their fears by inviting expert-lectors to talk at the company. If there is a sufficient number of those who want it, it is also possible to organise vaccination on the spot. More information: vaktsineeri.ee.

More information on lowering the risks in a working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found from the Tööelu (Work Life) portal (in Estonian).

Last updated: 22.10.2021 19:06

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To ensure the safety of the working environment, the employer must first have conducted a risk analysis that evaluates the risks related to biological risk factors, including the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The employer has to evaluate in the risk analysis which measures must be enacted to prevent the infection risk.

If one of the measures that the employer foresees is also vaccination against CIVID-19 but it is contraindicated to the employee, the employer must consider whether he can ensure that the employee and customers are safe from infection risk with some other measure -- e.g. the use of personal protective equipment, reorganising the work, regular testing of the employee, or other suitable measure. The employer must weigh whether he can offer the employee working with the kind of duties where the risk to the employee herself and other people would be smaller.

If it is not possible for the employer to reorganise the work or offer other duties, and it is not possible to lower the risks with other measures, the employer might, in substantiated cases, have the right to extraordinarily terminate the employment contract of the employee based on § 88 subsection 1 point 2 of the Employment Contracts Act for non-suitability for the position.

Last updated: 22.10.2021 17:59

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If the company has more than 30 employees, the employer can make a query to the Health Board about the vaccination coverage in its company. An application for that needs to be sent to vaktsineerimine@haigekassa.ee.

In order to protect personal data, the Health Board gives out information in a limited form and one of three possible options are forwarded as a reply:

1. less than 50%
2. 2. the exact percentage, if the vaccination coverage is in the range of 50-80%
3. more than 80%.

The Estonian Health Board can answer the query based on the information they have at their disposal. A person's vaccination status is checked based on immunisation reports and a person's connection to the company is based on the insurance cover data that has been entered into the Health Board database. In the reply to the query, all persons that have been vaccinated with at least one dose are also considered to be vaccinated.

Last updated: 08.09.2021 15:40

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The family doctor is the medical expert whose opinion and decision an employer can and must accept. In this case, an employee must be allowed back to work even though the test results are still positive.

More can be read from the Estonian Family Medicine Association's instructions to family doctors. the instructions clearly state that even though a patient is no longer infectious, her SARS-CoV-2 PCR analysis result may still be positive for several weeks. That is also the reason why family doctors are no longer referring people to repeat testing before the certificate of incapacity for work is terminated.

In order to prevent the spread of the virus in the working environment you should evaluate the probability of the occurrence of a biological risk factor and, if necessary, take measures that would help to prevent the risk.

Last updated: 09.09.2021 16:27

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The employer is generally not entitled to know the health data of the employee, including the COVID-19 diagnosis, when the employee received the diagnosis and other information related to the infection (e.g. the source of the infection).

The employer has the right to ask the employee whether they have been exposed to people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. The employer is also entitled to ask the employee's confirmation that the employee´s health condition does not hinder the performance of their tasks and is not a threat to other employees or customers.

The employer has the right to ask the employee who has gone home with/taken a certificate for sick leave with COVID-19 symptoms whether they have been diagnosed with COVID-19 by a doctor.

Therefore, information on COVID-19 diagnosis can be provided on the basis of an agreement between the employee and the employer.

At the same time, it is important to note that the employer has no right to conduct a comprehensive survey among the employees regarding their health status.

Based on the risk analysis of the working environment, the employer may start requiring that an employee who comes into contact with many people prove that they do not pose an infection risk, or that other measures that lower the infection risk be taken up, e.g. using personal protective equipment. Infection risk status can be proven with the certificate of recovery from COVID-19, testing certificate or vaccination certificate.

Last updated: 18.08.2021 14:02

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An employer must notify its staff of COVID-19 cases and protective measures (how clients and workers are protected at the company). An employer must limit these notifications to only the necessary information.

It is not allowed to reveal the name of the infected person to other workers and clients without cause. The name of the infected person may be revealed only if it is necessary to prevent further infections (for instance, to notify colleagues who worked in close contact with the infected person). The infected person must be notified that information on his disease is also being shared with other workers. An employer must give only a minimum amount of necessary information on the person and take the human dignity of the infected worker into account.

Last updated: 24.09.2020 16:38

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Making it possible to get vaccinated is one of the possible measures with which an employer can ensure the safety of the working environment and the health of employees. The measures for reducing the risks in the working environment can only be determined by first mapping what is the risk and how big is the probability that it will come true. Thus, in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the employer has to review its risk analysis of the working environment, amend it if necessary, and prepare an appropriate action plan based on a risk analysis that reflects the reality.

Based on the risk analysis of the working environment, the employer may start requiring that an employee who comes into contact with many people prove that they do not pose an infection risk, or that other measures that lower the infection risk be taken up, e.g. using personal protective equipment. Infection risk status can be proven with the certificate of recovery from COVID-19, testing certificate or vaccination certificate.

It is important that the employee knows what the consequences are if they refuse to get vaccinated -- i.e. does the employer have to reorganise this employee's work, ensure further personal or general protective equipment, or is there also a danger that in substantiated cases their employment contract is cancelled extraordinarily if it is not possible for the employer to reasonably reorganise the work and take up other measures to effectively lower the risk, and the risk for spreading the virus is big, endangering the patients or clients of the employer.

If the employee refuses vaccination and the employer estimates that the other possibilities for reducing the risks are not adequate either, the employee must be explained the consequences, get a prior warning (preferably at least in a form that can be reproduced in writing) and, if there are no other options, the employment contract can be cancelled extraordinarily based on § 88 subsection 1 point 2 of the Employment Contracts Act.

More information, recommendations and instructions about presenting the risk analysis can be found on the Tööelu.ee web page (in Estonian).

Last updated: 31.08.2021 23:26

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