Just under half of the teachers (those over 55 years of age, but also younger if suffering from diseases that give immunosuppression or if affected by a minor disability) could ask for health reasons (as it is more “fragile” than the Coronavirus ) to stay at home or, alternatively, to continue the activity in smart working and, therefore, with distance learning. It could do so legitimately on the basis of the rules provided for by decrees, agreements and circulars, certainly until the end of the state of emergency (currently set for 15 October), but, at least for “agile” work, even until 31 December. And the result, even if only half of the potential interested parties …
A little less than the half of the teachers (those over 55 years of age, but also younger if suffering from pathologies that give immunosuppression or if affected by a minor disability) could ask for health reasons (as it is more “fragile” than the Coronavirus) of to stay at home or, alternatively, to continue the business in smart working and, therefore, with distance learning. It could do so legitimately on the basis of rules provided for by decrees, agreements and circulars, certainly until the end of the state of emergency (currently set for 15 October), but, at least for “agile” work, even until 31 December. And the result, even if only half of the potential interested parties chose this path, would be the paralysis of the reopening of schools, with a chaos of substitutions, substitutions and holidays in the workforce such as to jeopardize the very attempt of a return to class from 14 next September.
The alarm on the upper floors of the Ministry of Education has been triggered for weeks and it is not certain that there is also this behind the exit of Minister Lucia Azzolina against the trade unions, “guilty” of having highlighted this obstacle along the way towards resuming activities in the presence, with the request for adequate plans for substitutes.
But let’s see where the risk of justified mass absences or the possibility of continuing distance learning arises. Well, there are many acts (Inail and Cts documents, laws, circulars of the Ministry of Health, protocols with the social partners) which between March and June identified “greater fragility in the higher age groups of the population (over 55 years of age)” which, “in the presence of co- morbidity “, may lead to greater risk. With the consequent provision of a true obligation for the employer to prepare “exceptional health surveillance” and adequate measures for the protection of workers most exposed to the risk of contagion, both for age and for other pathologies that involve risks of immunodepression. Until the end of the state of emergency.
Now, the most adequate protection measure adopted so far consists of smart working, which becomes a real right, alternative to justified absence, for certain categories: “It is not – he explains Emmanuele Massagli, president of Adapt, the study center on work founded by Marco Biagi – only people with disabilities or who have family care needs, but also immunosuppressed people, as well as, more generally, people who are over 55 years old. “Well, even just considering those over 55 (and not the other cases indicated), it is found that in the school 40 percent of teachers (300 thousand professors out of 730 thousand) and ATA staff (90 thousand out of 200 thousand) exceed the set age threshold and, therefore, can request exceptional health protection or staying at home in justified absence or using the smart.
“If on the one hand it is true that teachers should not be among the figures concerned from the ‘easy’ granting of remote work – Massagli points out – due to the evident impossibility of guaranteeing one’s work performance in virtual mode from the moment the students return to class, it is also inevitable that the trade union and the numerous school staff will ask for them to be taken adequate precautions for older school staff, demanding the same treatment recognized for employees of other central administrations “.
