Background information

In March 2020, the Italian government took some provisions in order to regulate the economic treatment provided to workers in the private and the public sectors, in case they would have to be quarantined, and therefore prevented from work, after having been in contact with people afflicted by the COVID-19 virus. These measures are new and exceptional, and aimed at extending the COVID-19 quarantine periods with some legal instruments already into force for normal sick-leaves.

The measures for workers of the private sector have been introduced with the Decree Law No. 18/2020 of 17 March 2020 (art. 26). For workers in the public sector, the legal reference is the Decree Law No. 9/2020 of 2 March 2020 (art. 19).

Content of measure

The measure sets that the period spent in quarantine by workers in the private sector is equalised to sickness for what concerns its economic treatment, but cannot be calculated within the maximum number of leave days for sickness (i.e. the maximum number of days a worker can stay home for sickness without losing his/her entitlement). The costs for this measure are financed by the State and not by the National Social Security Institute or the employers.

For workers in the public sector, according to this measure, the period spent in quarantine with active surveillance is equalised to hospitalisation. In this way, the quarantined civil servants are not subject to the deduction set by Article 71 of Law No. 133/2008, that in normal conditions allow them to get an indemnity calculated only on their basic monthly wage, excluding all the additional treatments.

Use of measure

No information available.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Social partners were not involved in the decision making process.

Views and reactions

Unknown.

Sources

• 17 March 2020: DECRETO-LEGGE 17 marzo 2020, n. 18 (www.normattiva.it)