Italy’s essential workers ‘living in fear’ over critical lack of PPE

‘No separation was created between clean and dirty areas inside the hospital, meaning protective robes are just piled up in a corner,’ nurse tells Federica Marsi

A nurse puts on protective equipment in a new hospital near Alba (AFP/Getty)

Every day, in the eerie stillness of Italy’s nationwide lockdown, workers who are deemed essential reach their workplaces to restock toilet paper, manufacture food cans or feed patients ailing from the coronavirus.

Many operate in relative safety, wearing filtered face masks tight enough to form a strong seal, or stand behind plastic barriers that block germs propelled by a sudden cough.

But others among the often low-wage workers manning the front lines are living in fear.

In Italian cities and towns entering the second month of nationwide lockdown, a series of strikes and protests have highlighted the precariousness of the conditions endured by workers who rely on employers for protection from Covid-19. Some are deemed “essential” but toil away in arms manufacturers, auto factories and shipyards that continue to operate despite a nationwide shutdown.

Geraldina*, a hospital canteen attendant working in Enna, on the Italian island of Sicily, sees going to work as a matter of personal responsibility, as well as a financial necessity. But flimsy personal protection equipment and longer working hours have left her exposed to a higher risk of contracting Covid-19.

“I found myself shaking while driving to work in the morning, just because of anxiety,” she tells The Independent.

The 42-year-old says that while the hospital tested its employees after it detected two cases of the coronavirus among its personnel, those like her who are hired externally – through companies that provide cleaning personnel and canteen attendants – never received a swab.

The fear of bringing the virus home to her husband, who works at a supermarket and is also in contact with the public, sent her stress levels through the roof.

“I had to learn to live with fear,” she says.

Antonella Protopapa, secretary general of the workers’ union Filcams Cgil, says that while “all workers should be treated with equal dignity”, some hospitals were prioritising their own personnel and flaunting their legal responsibility to protect contractors.

Amid a worldwide scarcity of protective equipment, the Italian government centralised its imports in a bid to prioritise redistribution to hospitals. Cleaning services and other contractors have thereby become largely dependent on hospitals which hire them to protect their employees.

“Contractors don’t have the same bargaining power when it comes to obtaining personal protective equipment,” Protopapa says.

Even among medical personnel, safety is often at the discretion of the hospital management. At a major health provider in Varese’s, in Italy’s hard-hit north, two nurses working in separate wards tell The Independent they felt highly exposed to the risk of contagion.

A nurse wears a CPAP helmet while attending to a patient being moved out of the ICU in the Pope John XXIII Hospital in Bergamo (Getty) (Getty Images)

“No separation was created between clean and dirty areas inside the hospital, meaning protective robes are just piled up in a corner rather than being safely disposed of in another area,” Tania*, one of the nurses, says.

A batch of new face masks originating from China was recalled shortly after being used for several days. Medical personnel were not tested for the virus after attending to Covid-19 patients with faulty masks.

Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands also reported receiving thousands of testing kits and medical masks that were below standard or defective from Chinese manufacturers, and which were distributed to front line medical teams.

Aside from this incident, faulty protective gear has been the norm at this hospital in Varese.

In a picture sent to The Independent, one employee stuck the tip of her tongue out to reveal a fissure in the face mask before beginning a shift.

Tania was able to find work in a different hospital, but those who remained complain no action has been taken despite the involvement of the relevant workers’ union.

Supermarkets, grocers, corner shops and all other stores selling food also remained open throughout the month-long lockdown in Italy, with no nationwide restrictions on opening days or hours.

Some employees who staff checkout counters as hundreds of people weave around them also complain about being neglected. Romano*, 27, tells The Independent that a mask and a pair of gloves were provided at the beginning of March to workers at his supermarket in Milan, the capital of the hard-hit Lombardy region, but they were never replaced.

“We all buy our own face masks and protects ourselves as best as we can,” Romano says. Since the end of February, he has been adding extra hours to his work schedule to cover for those who are on sick leave or whose children are home from school.

I found myself shaking while driving to work in the morning, just because of anxiety

Geraldina, hospital canteen worker

Workers’ unions have staged protests across the country to demand supermarkets close on Sundays and during holidays to allow overstretched personnel a day off each week. Several regional governors have already ordered the closure of supermarkets at the weekend.

Elsewhere, in the small town of Cameri in the northern Piedmont region, factory workers assembled F-35 fighter aircraft for Leonardo, a military company partly owned by the state, which holds 30.2 per cent of the shares.

Italy’s government has dithered before stopping non-essential production – issuing a decree almost two weeks after the nationwide lockdown on 9 March. Gianluca Tartaglia, of the Fim Cisl workers’ union in Piedmont, explains that while some industries were not “essential”, they were categorised as “strategic” and allowed to keep working.

Protests and threats of general strikes subsided as an agreement was reached to guarantee the safety of workers. “In those sites that we are able to monitor, adequate protections have been put in place,” Tartaglia says.

A worker in the Cameri factory tells The Independent personnel has been significantly reduced to allow for social distancing, and that face masks, gloves and sanitisers have been adequately provided.

But some workers are still bitter about having to work as Covid-19 spread across Italy.

“I don’t know if what we do is truly essential,” he says. “If we were given the option to stay home and have social welfare cover our wage like workers in some other sectors, then we’d all take that.”

* Names have been changed to protect identities