Covid and work: quarantine is no longer considered an illness

In 2020, 962 thousand workers stayed at home due to the presumed risk of having contracted the Covid-19 disease and if previously the Government had provided for quarantine compensation, today things seem to have changed.

But let’s see in detail what happened.

The announcement from the INPS president

Pasquale Tridico, president of the INPS, announced in recent weeks that there are currently insufficient funds for 2021 aimed at protecting the quarantine. According to the president’s words, the lack of coverage had been reported to the Government several times: «The legislator has not currently provided, for the year 2021, specific allocations aimed at protecting quarantine and therefore, barring any regulatory interventions, the Institute will not be able to proceed with recognizing social security protection for events relating to the current year» we read in the INPS circular.

What are the risks?

To date, in case of contact with a person suffering from Covid, 7 days of quarantine are mandatory for those who are vaccinated and 10 for those who are not.

It follows that this period will no longer be recognized by the Institute as an illness, therefore impacting all companies and employees who cannot work remotely.

And if on the one hand companies risk having to manage the absence of staff, on the other workers could see their salaries reduced.

According to Unimpresa, if this situation were to continue over time, workers will risk finding themselves on their paychecks 600 or 700 euros less than their salary.

The unions immediately took action asking for urgent regulatory intervention from the Government to ensure the protection of every worker in this already very delicate period for both companies and individuals.