Armenia's CC forbids imposing payment for PCR tests on employees

The Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia has declared unconstitutional the provision of the order issued by the Ministry of Public Health (MPH), which obliges unvaccinated employees to pay for PCR tests.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 1, 2021, a regulation came into force in Armenia according to which employees in a number of economy sectors are obliged to provide their employers with negative coronavirus tests every 14 days. Starting from December 1, they were obliged to provide their employers with the result of their PCR tests twice as often – once every 7 days.

Based on the lawsuit filed by MPs, the CC has considered the compliance of the MPH's order on PCR tests with the country's Constitution. The CC has ruled that defining the range of employees who should pay for PCR tests is beyond the competences of the head of the MPH.

In its response to the CC's ruling, the MPH has stated that "the CC had found only the words 'at employee's expense' as unconstitutional, but the very provision on demanding the results of PCR tests was found to be legal, since it proceeds from the interests of public health."

Gor Ovannisyan, an expert on the constitutional law, has treated, in his Facebook page, the CC's ruling as absurd. According to his version, it fails to follow from the CC's ruling that someone else, for example, the state, should pay for employees' PCR tests. Moreover, the CC didn't oblige the state to settle this matter. "The duty remains with employees, but it's unknown who will pay for it," Mr Ovannisyan has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 24, 2021 at 10:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.