RIGA, Nov 17 (LETA) - Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks (RNP) municipal housing manager has suspended 44 employees without Covid-19 certificates, LETA reported.

Vaccination rate has increased from 90 percent to 94 percent over the past two weeks, which is almost excellent result. However, 44 employees have been suspended from their positions. Several others are on sick leaves or vacations and decisions on their suspension will be made after they return to work.

RNP said that it has promoted vaccination by organizing lectures and vaccination procedures at work.

Since the start of the state of emergency in the country, RNP has recruited 26 new employees. At present, there are 290 vacancies in the company, including the suspended staff members.

"The state policy, introducing mandatory vaccination in the public sector, is logical and the society will benefit from that in a long term. Of course, in a short term such a decision makes it difficult to ensure a full range of services, but we will compensate it with new employees and use of technical means," said RNP board chairman Ronalds Neimanis.

RNP, which belongs to the Riga City Council, in 2020 posted EUR 4.6 million in loss, while the company's turnover dropped 13 percent to EUR 55.6 million.