VIENNA (LifeSiteNews) — In the run-up to Austria’s sweeping COVID shot mandate, due to be implemented in February and affecting an estimated 2 million citizens, the government is preparing to harshly police the requirement by enlisting employers to enforce crippling fines on the un-jabbed.
From February 1, Austrian citizens will be required by law to have received a full regimen of COVID-19 shots or face being added to a registry for the un-jabbed, members of which will be subject to hefty fines of up to €3,400 ($4,000), issued every three months, Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein confirmed.
Concerns have been raised by, among others, Austrian politician Susanne Fürst of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) regarding a new amendment to the Administrative Enforcement Act which allows the government to imprison those who refuse to pay COVID fines for up to a year.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews in November, Alexander Tschugguel, an outspoken critic of the totalitarian regime taking over his home country, noted that “the average [monthly net] income in Austria is less than 2,000 euros,” rendering the fines “not affordable for [most] people.”
Fines will continue to be sent to those on the registry until they comply. The measure forms part of a government tactic to push uptake of the jabs in Austria which currently reports Europe’s lowest inoculation rate, sitting at around 68 percent uptake within the eligible population.
The city of Linz, capital of the Upper Austria region and home to around 200,000 residents, is now offering salaried employment to those who would act as “vaccination inspectors” come February, hired to “monitor vaccination refusers” to ensure that they have been paying the hefty price attached to remaining untouched by the COVID needle, Swiss media outlet Blick reported.
Linz has the country’s lowest “vaccination” rate, with around 63 percent having taken the shots. The city job listing advertises a montly income of €2,774 ($3,126), to be paid 14 times per year, totalling €38,863 ($43,794). For this, the successful candidate is expected to prepare “penal orders” and to process appeals.
The job ad states that applicants should “like working with legislation and administrative procedures.” They must be Austrian nationals, have completed their high school diploma, and “should be resilient and willing to work. Specifically: willing to work more overtime,” Blick added. A “vaccine inspector” will also have to be “fully vaccinated” or have demonstrably recovered from infection with the virus.
Women are to be given preference for the jobs over men.
Austria became the first European country to require inoculation against the novel coronavirus when then-Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced in November that the country would penalize all eligible adults who decide not to take the shot.
Germany could soon follow suit. Bärbel Bas, the president of the German parliament, argued for the introduction of a vaccine registry Sunday.
Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Bas stated her “concern” that “the health departments don’t know exactly how many people are infected or what exactly the current rate of vaccination is.”
“We need exact numbers,” she added. “We need a national vaccine registry, for instance.”
According to Tschugguel, it is precisely the existence of this registry that has enabled the Austrian government to announce mandatory vaccination as of next year, and to penalize failure to vaccinate.