Rome: Italy will require all workers to show coronavirus health passes from Friday, one of the world’s hardest-hit anti-covid regimes that have already instigated riots and which many fear will cause “anarchy”.
More than 85 percent of Italians over the age of 12 have received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, making them eligible for the so-called Green Pass certificate.
But according to various estimates, about 2.5 million of the country’s 23 million workers have not been vaccinated, and are at risk of being denied access to the workplace from October 15.
“You have no idea of the chaos that we will have in firms,” said the president of the heavily industrialized northern Veneto region, luca zia, said recently.
If contracted the virus within the past six months, unvaccinated workers can still get a green pass by getting tested for the coronavirus or with a recovery certificate.
If they choose to qualify through the test instead, they will have to take them at their own expense, and repeat them every 48 hours.
Xia suggested that there was not enough testing capacity to meet potential demand, raising the possibility of mass absenteeism from work.
“The entrepreneurs I talk to are very concerned,” he said.
Green passes are already required for teachers and other school employees and for other activities such as eating indoors at bars and restaurants, or going to movies, museums and football games.
But they are not popular, at least among a large minority – as shown by last Saturday’s riots in Rome, where an anti-PAAS demonstration led by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party turned into an attack on the CGIL trade union building. Gaya.
Anyone caught at the workplace without a green pass can be fined from 600 to 1,500 euros ($700-1700).
And those who don’t come for work because they don’t have a face of suspension without pay – but they can’t be fired.
Meanwhile, employers can be fined 400-1,000 euros if their employees do not comply with the rules.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi opted for mandatory covid Last month passed further lockdowns to halt and support Italy’s recovery from a recession of a record 8.9 percent last year.
The measure, which follows a similar initiative launched in Greece last month, was also aimed at boosting vaccination rates.
Business lobby Confindustria has been one of the staunch supporters of the Green Pass in Italy, one of the European countries hardest hit by the coronavirus with more than 130,000 deaths.
“The focus is on making workplaces as safe as possible … as this is the only way to ensure public health and economic recovery,” Vice President Maurizio Stirpe told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Trade unions, on the other hand, have been skeptical. He previously called for a blanket rule to coerce all Italians, arguing that the alternative would be to avoid vaccination and discrimination between unvaccinated workers.
– Threats from dock workers – but the government has reduced it, partly because one of the members of Draghi’s left-right coalition government, the Nationalist League Party Matteo SalviniOpposed mandatory vaccines.
Once the government ignored the unions’ advice, worker representatives successfully requested that unvaccinated workers be suspended rather than fired.
But unions failed to secure free Covid tests for workers they wanted states or employers to pay for.
“Personally, I would get tested,” Stefano, one of the people who protested in Rome last week, told AFP. But he complained that it was “absurd” for him to pay to continue his work.
So far, only dock workers in Trieste have been offered the prospect of free Covid tests, but they are still threatening to block all activity at its port, a major hub in the northeast, from October 15.
Meanwhile, there are concerns that violence could flare up again next Saturday, when the anti-PAAS movement plans further protests and unions prepare for a major anti-fascist rally in Rome.
More than 85 percent of Italians over the age of 12 have received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, making them eligible for the so-called Green Pass certificate.
But according to various estimates, about 2.5 million of the country’s 23 million workers have not been vaccinated, and are at risk of being denied access to the workplace from October 15.
“You have no idea of the chaos that we will have in firms,” said the president of the heavily industrialized northern Veneto region, luca zia, said recently.
If contracted the virus within the past six months, unvaccinated workers can still get a green pass by getting tested for the coronavirus or with a recovery certificate.
If they choose to qualify through the test instead, they will have to take them at their own expense, and repeat them every 48 hours.
Xia suggested that there was not enough testing capacity to meet potential demand, raising the possibility of mass absenteeism from work.
“The entrepreneurs I talk to are very concerned,” he said.
Green passes are already required for teachers and other school employees and for other activities such as eating indoors at bars and restaurants, or going to movies, museums and football games.
But they are not popular, at least among a large minority – as shown by last Saturday’s riots in Rome, where an anti-PAAS demonstration led by the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party turned into an attack on the CGIL trade union building. Gaya.
Anyone caught at the workplace without a green pass can be fined from 600 to 1,500 euros ($700-1700).
And those who don’t come for work because they don’t have a face of suspension without pay – but they can’t be fired.
Meanwhile, employers can be fined 400-1,000 euros if their employees do not comply with the rules.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi opted for mandatory covid Last month passed further lockdowns to halt and support Italy’s recovery from a recession of a record 8.9 percent last year.
The measure, which follows a similar initiative launched in Greece last month, was also aimed at boosting vaccination rates.
Business lobby Confindustria has been one of the staunch supporters of the Green Pass in Italy, one of the European countries hardest hit by the coronavirus with more than 130,000 deaths.
“The focus is on making workplaces as safe as possible … as this is the only way to ensure public health and economic recovery,” Vice President Maurizio Stirpe told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Trade unions, on the other hand, have been skeptical. He previously called for a blanket rule to coerce all Italians, arguing that the alternative would be to avoid vaccination and discrimination between unvaccinated workers.
– Threats from dock workers – but the government has reduced it, partly because one of the members of Draghi’s left-right coalition government, the Nationalist League Party Matteo SalviniOpposed mandatory vaccines.
Once the government ignored the unions’ advice, worker representatives successfully requested that unvaccinated workers be suspended rather than fired.
But unions failed to secure free Covid tests for workers they wanted states or employers to pay for.
“Personally, I would get tested,” Stefano, one of the people who protested in Rome last week, told AFP. But he complained that it was “absurd” for him to pay to continue his work.
So far, only dock workers in Trieste have been offered the prospect of free Covid tests, but they are still threatening to block all activity at its port, a major hub in the northeast, from October 15.
Meanwhile, there are concerns that violence could flare up again next Saturday, when the anti-PAAS movement plans further protests and unions prepare for a major anti-fascist rally in Rome.
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