Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Italy's Conte says workers' plight a chief pandemic concern

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says one of the greatest pandemic concerns facing his government is the plight of workers once a moratorium on firings lifts in March

Via AP news wire
Wednesday 30 December 2020 15:24 GMT
Italy Politics
Italy Politics (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday that one of the greatest pandemic concerns facing his government is the plight of workers once a moratorium on firings lifts in March.

Conte defended his government’s actions to protect workers citing 5 billion euros earmarked for social stabilizers that the Bank of Italy said had helped to prevent 600,000 people from losing their jobs during the COVID-19 emergency.

He said the government was working with unions and social services “to confront the very worrying scenarios that we will see after March, because it is clear that the security belt that we have built is more or less working.”

Charities have reported a spike in requests from first-time aid recipients due to the total lockdown in the spring and less severe closures this fall as the virus resurged. It has claimed more than 73,000 lives since February, the highest toll in Europe.

Charities also note that some categories of workers remain uncovered by social programs while government aid last spring arrived late and proved in many cases insufficient to cover basic expenses.

During a wide-ranging end-of-year press conference, Conte maintained his stance that the vaccine against the virus would remain voluntary in Italy. But he urged people to get it. Surveys show one-quarter to one-third of Italians are skeptical of the vaccine.

“I ask everyone to make an effort, put aside ideology, put aside emotional reactions, and let’s perform an act of solidarity, if we don’t want to call it love, toward the entire national community. Let’s take the vaccine,’’ Conte said.

Conte said the first phase of the vaccination program reaching at least 10 million people should be reached by the end of April, but that there will still be a long way to go to reach so-called herd immunity in the country of 60 million.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in