Under the hashtag “Take a deep breath,” the trade association is launching its own petition against the obligation to wear masks for its employees.
The new Corona rules, which come into effect on Saturday, will also bring some innovations to everyday work. Hundreds of thousands of employees are allowed to take off their masks again – as long as they don’t work in the areas listed in the regulation (“Today” has an overview here).
All new: Who has to keep wearing a mask at work >>
However, the mask will accompany 130,000 other business employees for some time to come. They are only entitled to a ten-minute “mask break” every three hours. This applies to employees of supermarkets, drugstores, tobacconists or even auto repair shops, as long as there are no other technical protective devices.
Masks in many countries
This differentiation between “essential” and “non-essential” commerce leaves industry officials frothing. In Germany, France, Great Britain, all of Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands, this distinction has already been abolished. In Austria, on the other hand, people had to work with a mask almost continuously for 24 months.
“The 130,000 essential trade employees have been doing extraordinary things every day since the start of the corona pandemic, they have secured local supplies across the country. Now they deserve a break,” said Rainer Will, managing director of the Trade Association. A petition was then started on the change.org platform.
“discrimination”
“We demand an immediate end to the mask requirement for all Austrian retail employees.” Finally, it needs equality for all retail employees. “The continuation of this discrimination can no longer be discussed epidemiologically,” says Rainer Will.
Of course, all customers and all employees should continue to wear masks voluntarily if they feel safer doing so. But the abolition of the legal mask requirement should also apply to so-called retail heroes of the corona pandemic.
Nav-Leo Account Time 04.15.2022, 18:52| Date: 04.15.2022, 18:52