Italy: an agreement paves the way for vaccinations in Lombardy’s industrial workplaces

On 10 March Italy’s Lombardy region together with the regional branch of the Confindustria employers’ organization and the national association of occupational physicians presented a protocol agreement (here) that provides for employees to be vaccinated at their workplace. This protocol, which has provoked trade union protest, not least since they were not consulted, can only come into force when it is approved by the national health emergency head, and clearly only when the vaccines themselves become widely available. The project is based on voluntary participation and it will be up to the industrial companies to decide whether or not to join the campaign, and provide suitable vaccination spaces. The occupational physicians who will carry out the vaccinations will also have to be volunteers, and the vaccines will only be administered to those employees wishing to receive them. The pilot project as intended in the protocol will have to face a number of challenges including vaccine availability, adherence to nationally established cohort priorities as well as logistical requirements (impossible to administer vaccines requiring sub-70° conditions in the workplace setting). The protocol also raises issues related to data confidentiality (c.f. article No.12378), since it provides that ‘the company organizes the vaccination take-up, i.e. it collects the names of those intending to be vaccinated in the company’ on the basis of information gathered earlier in collaboration with the trade unions. The protocol, which is also open to the Confapi (Italian Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises), would have the advantage of providing additional locations and doctors to carry out vaccinations, as well as facilitating access for workers. Other regions may soon follow Lombardy’s example. At a national level the Draghi government is soon expected to announce a new vaccination plan, which could include sooner vaccinations for employees having to work face-to-face, while Confindustria is finalizing a list of companies that are ready to offer spaces dedicated to vaccinations.