MILAN: Banking staff in Italy who are working without adequate protection against the coronavirus epidemic may be forced to go on strike to ensure their safety, the head of the sector’s main union said on Tuesday.
Faced with the world’s deadliest outbreak of the new coronavirus, Italian banks have closed hundreds of branches, cut opening hours and told customers to book appointments before walking into branches still operating.
But Italy’s elderly population, especially in the south, is heavily dependent on help from tellers and unions fear a surge in branch visits in early April because of pension payments.
“We’re considered an essential service ... but workers should not take risks,” Lando Sileoni, head of banking union FABI, told an online forum with financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
Unrest is growing among workers in sectors spared from this week’s government ban on non-essential business activity, with strikes in the metal, chemical, textile, rubber-plastic and paper industries expected on Wednesday.
“The last thing that Italy can allow itself is industrial conflict in a situation of national emergency,” deputy Economy Minister Antonio Misiani told SkyTG24 television.
Sileoni said unions expected a coordinated response from a call with banking lobby ABI at 1400 GMT.
“Banks have gone at it alone ... there is envy and rivalry ... this is unthinkable. If this situation doesn’t change quickly, we’ll be forced to call a strike,” he said.
Banking unions have asked for a two-week shutdown. On Tuesday petrol stations said they would close because they could not guarantee safety standards.
Sileoni said just over half of bank employees were smart working but 40%-45% had to work without adequate gear in branches where elderly people were used to paying almost daily visits before the crisis.
“Bank tellers ... are in contact with the public without masks, gloves or even the protective plastic barriers that post offices have introduced,” he said.
A shortage of protective equipment, including in hospitals, has hampered efforts to contain the spread of the virus that has killed more than 6,000 people in Italy over a month.
Sileoni said banks had been unable to secure masks for staff and cited the example of a leading group that had bought 10,000 masks, only to have them seized by the Civil Protection Agency.
“It’s been six weeks since we started asking for protective equipment and they haven’t been able to tell us when masks and gloves will arrive,” he said. - REUTERS