The legislation, adopted in July, suspends the contracts in the healthcare system of employees who are not vaccinated by September 1 with at least the first dose of a drug against SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

The plaintiffs are in favor of immunization but oppose its compulsory nature on the grounds that it violates provisions of the Constitution that protect individual freedom, according to the president of the public hospital doctors’ union, Matina Pagoni.

At least 82 percent of health workers in Greece are vaccinated while a tenth have antibodies after contracting the disease in the past, according to industry sources. The Greek government is also considering making immunization compulsory for civil servants in contact with the public, as well as for catering staff.

The new law was rejected by part of the population, as several thousand people demonstrated the day before against compulsory vaccination in the capital and Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city.

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