Labour Conflicts over Health and Safety in the Italian Covid19 Crisis

The current Covid19 crisis has raised new issues regarding health and work in Italy. Far from being new, the pandemics rehabilitate a debate dating back to the 1970s, which brought to the establishment of the national healthcare system. Italy has a longstanding problem with health & safety at work. In 2019 alone, according to the estimates of workplace safety agency INAIL, more than 600,000 workplace accidents were reported, of which 1,089 deadly - roughly three per day; to which many more unreported ones must be added. This problem, particularly stark in Italy when compared to other European countries, has many roots: widespread labour informality, unregulated outsourcing practices, inadequate resources for workplace inspections and upholding of legislation, and the quantitative predominance of micro- and small workplaces in the Italian productive system where unions presence is low and the flouting of regulations commonplace. For long, the issue of workplace accidents and insecurity remained an invisible hemorrhage, which did not attract neither headlines nor public attention. However, the Covid19 pandemic has contributed to a sudden re-politicisation of this issue, putting it at the very centre of public debate and labour conflict in Italy. In this contribution, we outline the major points of contention on this issue which have emerged during the Italian Covid19 pandemic, and the responses and strategies enacted by labour movement actors.