Vaccines in the company, let's go. On April 6, the specific protocol was signed between the ministries of labour, health, economic development, the extraordinary commissioner for the Covid19 emergency, INAIL and the social partners in order to allow maximum dissemination of vaccines to workers, regardless of the type of contract or the size of the company. But how it will actually work this initiative, so important to make the distribution of anti-Covid serum even more widespread, in places where you are in contact with other people and therefore the risk of contagion is greater? Paolo Stern, president of Nexumstp, a business consultancy firm that assists over 10 SMEs throughout Italy, helped us to clarify.
"The vaccination of male and female workers - explains the expert - achieves the dual objective of contributing to accelerating and implementing the anti-Covid-19 vaccination capacity at a local level and, at the same time, making the continuation of commercial and productive activities on the entire national territory, increasing the level of safety in the workplace, all in line with the national strategic plan for vaccination prepared by the Extraordinary Commissioner for the fight against the epidemiological emergency". Employers, of any sector and size, can be activated in two ways:
1) directly, offering the company spaces located in the various territories as additional vaccination points and undertaking to directly vaccinate consenting personnel;
2) indirectly, through the use of private health facilities.
Whatever the choice, first of all the company must take into account the "Interim indications for anti-SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 vaccination in the workplace" attached to the April 6 protocol and build on this basis its business plan for the preparation of extraordinary vaccination points. “Protocol remembers that vaccination is not mandatory – adds Stern – and therefore the employer will only be able to offer an opportunity to the worker who will be free to join or not”. For its part, the employer, and the subjects involved including the competent doctor, will be guaranteed from criminal liability in the event of problems in administering the vaccines by the specific "shield" provided for by art. 3 of Legislative Decree 44/2021.
The expenses for the creation and management of the business plans, including the costs for the administration, are borne by the employer, while the supply of the vaccines, the devices for administration (syringes/needles) and the provision of the tools training courses and tools for recording the vaccinations carried out, is the responsibility of the territorially competent Regional Health Services. “The time necessary for each worker to get vaccinated also remains the responsibility of the employer; in fact, if the vaccination is carried out during working hours, the time necessary for it is equated in all respects to working hours”, explains the legal adviser.
The companies that will virtuously make themselves available to organize the vaccination plan at their offices will still face a series of logistical organizational problems of a certain importance. In fact, they will have to ensure suitable premises, equipment for administration, fridge for storing vaccines, registers for monitoring the activities carried out. This effort, according to Stern's reflection, should be read as a large corporate welfare operation, the most important that a company can put in place today, which however can only have the hoped-for success if the quantities of vaccines available are such as to quickly cover the entire company strength. “In fact, an operation that takes too long over time, as would happen in the event of a shortage of available doses, and which does not allow for a rapid resumption of ordinary activities, would be a big problem for the company. The impact of a leopard-spotted corporate vaccination would only be a source of corporate discussions and conflicts about the criteria with which to assign priorities”, argues the president of Nexumstp.
As an alternative to the direct vaccination method, employers will still be able to collaborate in the vaccination initiative through the use of private health structures with which they will be able to define private agreements also through the reference category associations or bilateral bodies. In this case, according to the Protocol, the charges will be borne by the company, with the exception of the supply of vaccines which is ensured by the territorially competent Regional Health Services.
As a last resort, employers who are not required to appoint a competent doctor or who cannot make use of private healthcare facilities can make use of the INAIL healthcare facilities. In this case, since it is a public vaccination initiative, the costs remain the responsibility of INAIL. Finally, the competent doctors of the companies that will join the vaccination campaign are offered a specific training course created with the involvement of INAIL and the Ministry of Labour, which will contribute to the preparation of information material intended for employers, male and female workers and to prevention figures.
