As Italy prepares to require COVID green pass in workplaces, employers say much remains unclear

Despite violent protests in Rome this weekend over new COVID-19 requirements for workplaces, Italy is moving ahead with the strictest measures against COVID-19 in Europe.

Late Saturday, some 10,000 protesters marched through the streets of Rome. Several hundred broke off to storm the headquarters of Italy's largest union, breaking windows and equipment. Dozens more protesters, also members of a neo-Fascist group, smashed windows in the emergency entrance of a hospital where one of their fellow protesters who had been arrested was being treated as a patient. Four health-care workers were injured and police arrested 12 people, including the head of a far-right group.

Yet on the same day the violent protests erupted, Italy quietly reached a goal it set in March to fully vaccinate 80 per cent of the population over the age of 12, with 85 per cent having received at least one dose.

As countries around the world look for ways to motivate people to get vaccinated and impose restrictions and mandates to reduce spread of the coronavirus, observers say Italy — the European Union country hit first and hardest with more than 131,000 deaths — has struck something of a fine balance resulting in high vaccination rates and little political resistance. 

Starting Oct. 15, Italy will become the first European country to require the so-called green pass — the digital or paper proof of vaccination, immunity or a negative test in the past 48 hours — in all places of work, both private and public. It's a step short of fully mandating vaccines, something Prime Minister Mario Draghi openly considered a month ago.

The new workplace green pass requirement is still one of the toughest in the world, giving workers five days of "unjustified absence," after which their salary can be suspended, though they can't be fired. Employees found inside the workplace without a green pass will face fines of up $2,100 Cdn; for employers who don't check workers' green passes, as much as $1,400 Cdn.

The Italian government first introduced the pass in June for international travel, then extended it to indoor restaurant dining and theatres, gyms and pools. In early September, it was extended further, to long-distance train rides, interregional buses and ferries, domestic flights and parents entering schools.