After being debated for six days in Parliament, the new health bill was to be validated by the Constitutional Council to enter into force. However, several articles of this new bill were still censored.
On Thursday, August 5th, the Constitutional Council delivered its verdict on the health bill: the entire bill is in compliance with the constitution and has therefore been adopted, but certain articles were rejected by the “sages.”
Yesterday, before the council rendered its verdict, we revisited the sensitive articles of this new bill which might not be validated. Several of these articles were indeed censored by the council:
Mandatory isolation, for example, was deemed neither “necessary, suitable, nor proportionate,” as it is considered to infringe on personal freedom. Facing this rejection, Prime Minister Jean Castex stated in a communiquรฉ that “The public authorities will ensure to remind all affected individuals, including those who are asymptomatically infected, of the necessity to strictly adhere to medical recommendations regarding isolation.”
The council judges also rejected the article authorizing the termination of fixed-term contracts and temporary work in cases where the employee does not have a health pass. However, they validated the procedure for suspending employment contracts without pay for permanent contracts. “By stipulating that the lack of presentation of a ‘health pass’ constitutes a cause for early termination of fixed-term or mission contracts only, the legislature instituted a disparity in treatment among employees based on the nature of their employment contracts that is unrelated to the pursued objective,” the council wrote in its communiquรฉ.
The extension of the health pass to certain shopping centers was indeed validated by the sages, but some points were revised. In fact, only if justified at the departmental level. “Beyond a certain threshold defined by decree.” In cases where this threshold is not surpassed, access to shopping centers will remain open to those who do not hold a health pass.
Despite these refusals, the Constitutional Council still validated the two most sensitive articles: the implementation of the health pass and the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers starting on September 14th.
