POFEE: It is necessary to extend the submission of the Responsible Employer Declaration for the coronavirus tests for a few days

“For a necessary re-extension for a few days for companies to submit initial and amending statements responsible for conducting PCR and rapid test at PS ERGANI to cover all reporting weeks, and not to charge companies with unfair fines in such a difficult period, while they are still trying to stand on their own two feet after a six-month lockdown “, says the Panhellenic Federation of Tax Freelancers (POFEE) in its letter to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mr. Konstantinos Hatzidakis.

The letter of POFEE in detail:

In recent weeks, in the context of efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus COVID-19, in order to avoid a new universal lockdown, with catastrophic consequences for the economic and social continuity of the country, the obligation to submit, twice a week, the vaccinated and non-vaccinated of workers in diagnostic screening for COVID-19 coronavirus disease by the molecular screening method (PCR) or by the use of rapid coronavirus antigen detection COVID-19 (rapid test) in private diagnostic laboratories, as defined in p.d. 84/2001, or in private clinics or in pharmacies or in private doctors.

Then the companies – employers are obliged to submit a responsible statement to PS ERGANI entitled “Responsible Statement of Companies – Employers on compliance with the obligation to submit unvaccinated and non-sick employees to a diagnostic test for coronavirus within the week of COVID-19”.

Although the above statement is the sole responsibility of the company – employer, in the context of the smooth cooperation between the Accountant – Tax Technician and the companies it serves, colleagues took on this declarative burden, among the countless other regular and extraordinary declarative obligations.

Unfortunately, due to the large volume of this work and the communication problems of the subject, we have received reports of companies that did not submit the relevant responsible statement within the reporting week, although the relevant diagnostic tests of their employees have been performed and submitted by the diagnostic centers normally in the National Patient Register COVID-19.

This will result in a fine of € 2,000 for non-submission of the relevant responsible statement to companies, whose employees were normally subjected to the time they were required to undergo diagnostic tests, and which can be verified by the National Patient Registry COVID-19 , which shows both the time of the test and its result.

We know that you have already extended the deadline for submitting the responsible statement “on compliance with the obligation to submit unvaccinated and non-sick workers to coronary heart disease by COVID-19 during the reference week”, until Sunday 14/11, for the weeks October 18-24, October 25-31 and November 1-7, but we consider it necessary to extend again a few days for companies to submit initial and amending statements responsible for conducting PCR and rapid test at PS ERGANI to covers all the reference weeks, as as mentioned above the correct dates of the tests can be verified by the National Patient Registry COVID-19, and companies are not burdened with unfair fines in such a difficult period, while still trying to stand on their own two feet after a six-month lockdown, but also to cross the shaky landscape shaped by the new measures enacted.

In the future, and to avoid such cases, we would propose the direct connection of the National Patient Registry COVID-19 with PS ERGANI so that the data are automatically pumped and crossed, and completion is required only in cases of exclusion of the employee from the tests, e.g. absence due to leave or in case the employee enters a teleworking status. Alternatively, employers – companies should be given the opportunity to submit an overdue responsible statement or overdue amendment to the original within a reasonable period of time, which removes the imposition of the fine of € 2000, if the time of the test of their employees agrees with the reference week.