Retail Calls for End of Mask Requirement – ooe.ORF.at

The GPA and retail chains Lidl, Rewe, Hofer and Spar are calling on the federal government, especially Health Minister Johannes Rauch of the Green Party, to end mask requirements in all retail.

Criticism: the mask is in the supermarket but not at parties

The head of the trade union for private sector employees, Barbara Tepper, points out that Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Estonia and the Netherlands have already abolished the mask in all trade and in Austria Celebrating together thousands is possible without a mask – but supermarket employees must wear a mask . Alessandro Wolff, CEO of Lidl Austria, believes that with the current number of cases, it is no longer possible to reliably discuss continuing mask requirements.

In conversation with the counselor

One is already in talks with the federal advisor, says managing director of SPAR’s Marchtrenk headquarters, Jacob Leitner. “Our employees have had to wear these masks for about two years, they have reached their physical and psychological limits. I think it is time to raise the mask requirements. Of course, we have always been in favor of complying with the law, but I have to admit that our employees are now very impatient and they simply have not They come back to understand these government actions,” says Leitner.

“Blocks and make work difficult”

Employers and employees together on this issue. says Wolfgang Gerstmayer of the Federation of Special Employees. “Customers who come inside the store for a maximum of half an hour to an hour. But employees work eight, nine or ten hours in retail, and when you imagine stocking the shelves, pulling out detergent, pulling out drinks, that is of course an enormous burden. From our point of view, wearing a mask is no longer necessary because it actually only hinders and makes work more difficult,” says Gerstmayer.