What will change on the vaccination obligation, green pass and smart working

29 March 20222 years ago babelfish

The news regarding the vaccination obligation, green pass and smart working introduced by the law decree 24/22. The intervention of Giovanni Costantino, founder of the Costantino & Partners law firm

In view of the termination, on March 31, of the state of emergency, the Government issued a decree to develop various provisions, including those concerning the vaccination obligation for workers in certain sectors and that of showing the Green Pass to access to the workplace and smart working.

These innovations can be summarized as follows:

the vaccination obligation for staff in the health, social and health care and social welfare sectors has been extended until the end of the year;
starting from 25 March and until 30 April 2022, for all workers (regardless of their age) it will be sufficient to show the basic Green Pass to access the workplace, unless they work in activities for which the vaccination obligation;
the provisions pursuant to art. 90, co. 3 and 4, legislative decree 34/2020 (converted into law 77/2020), relating to the use of the simplified procedure for joining agile work.

In particular, art. 8 of the newly published Decree intervenes by distinguishing the vaccination obligation for school and university staff and training in general, in the defense, safety, public rescue, etc. than that provided for workers operating in the health sector.

In fact, if for the former the expiration of the vaccination obligation has been maintained until next June 15, for the workers of this latter sector the new decree extends the obligation until December 31, 2022, with the consequence that the staff not vaccinated to date suspended due to non-compliance with this obligation, it cannot be re-admitted to service until the end of the year.

It should be remembered that the verification of the fulfillment of the obligation in question by the health personnel can also be carried out by the Order to which they belong, while for the other workers, the assessment will continue to be the exclusive responsibility of the employer.

Precisely with reference to the Orders, the new Decree takes a step back from what was stated by the Ministry of Health last February 17 in a response to the FNOMCeO, in which the Dicastery had specified that the healing could not be considered suitable to revoke the suspension of the health no vax which, therefore, could only be re-entered upon completion of the vaccination cycle.

The legislative novel, on the other hand, almost entirely acknowledging the interpretations provided by the Order of Doctors and Nurses, states that the no-vax health worker who is suspended, but recovered from Covid, can return to service on request, but is still required to be vaccinated. as soon as possible and, specifically, in a period immediately following three months from the contraction of the infection.

On this point, the extension of this discipline, carried out by the Government in the definitive version of the Decree, is of particular importance (while in some drafts circulated in recent days the possibility of returning to service following recovery was limited only to health professionals enrolled in the Orders) , to all health workers.

It is therefore clarified that for workers in the health area the contagion from Covid-19 constitutes a mere reason for deferring the vaccination obligation and, as proof of the legislative disfavour towards subjects who do not comply with the vaccination obligation, it is expressly highlighted that the termination of the suspension is only "temporary", only for the period in which the worker is prevented from vaccinating after contracting the virus.

For subjects from other sectors, with a view to a return to normality, the new decree provides for the possibility of accessing the workplace by showing only the basic Green Pass, regardless of age.

Therefore, workers who have reached the age of 50 and have not undergone vaccination will be subject only to the administrative sanctions provided for by law.

Furthermore, until next June 30, 2022, smart working can continue to be applied by employers, to any subordinate employment relationship and in compliance with the principles laid down by l. 81/2017, even in the absence of an individual agreement with the workers concerned.

The information obligations regarding accident prevention can still be fulfilled electronically, using the specific documentation prepared by INAIL.

On the other hand, nothing is foreseen with regard to support measures to protect so-called fragile workers. And in fact, neither the provision that equates absences from work to hospitalization in case of impossibility to carry out the work activity in an agile mode, nor that which allows the worker to perform the service in smart-working, are not extended, also through entrusting to another task included in the same category or area of employment or carrying out specific training activities, even remotely (article 26, paragraph 2-bis of the decree-law n.18 / 2020).

These prerogatives, therefore, subject to subsequent (and indeed desirable) legislative interventions, will therefore expire on March 31st.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/cosa-cambiera-su-obbligo-vaccinale-green-pass-e-smart-working/ on Tue, 29 Mar 2022 06:29:40 +0000.