School staff vaccinations: temporary workers from Campania remain outside Italy, and serum denied in Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy.
Children of a "lesser" Italy, the army of teachers and ATA staff from Campania who crisscross the country every day for a supply job earning a few hundred euros and the desire for stable work. Sleepless nights on public transport, dreaming of a score and trying to climb a ranking where they always rank last, and now also facing the mockery of a vaccine they won't be able to access. It's an absurd situation that thousands of precarious teachers and school staff, mostly commuters, are experiencing these days.
"Workers have been bureaucratically trapped between two regions and consequently excluded from their respective vaccinations, without any reasonable justification," emphasized Leda Tonziello, a teacher spokesperson for teachers working in Lazio. "Thousands of people have been effectively excluded from immunizations, as they don't work in Campania and are ineligible for regional vaccinations. They are not even being accepted in Lazio, because the Region has decided to call school staff through their family doctors, and since they don't have a medical address, they are effectively left 'out.'"
A situation affecting countless commuters, many of whom are from the province of Caserta. "Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education's communication provides no clarity on this matter. So far, we've written to everyone, forwarded requests to both the Campania and Lazio regions, and even contacted Director General Rocco Pinneri for clarification and the long-awaited solution, but to no avail!" said the teachers' spokesperson. "It's important to point out that commuter teachers face the risk of contagion on a daily basis, due to constantly full trains and hours of waiting in crowded stations. These are extremely dangerous situations for which masks and a little sanitizer aren't enough." "These are difficult times," the teacher concluded. "We only ask that they work safely; we cannot risk our lives or endanger the lives of others."
The situation is paradoxical. Thousands of stories of the "excluded" exist. The case of Alfonso, originally from the province of Salerno, is emblematic. He is involved in politics and social work and works in a school in Bologna. "I am part of that army of 'vacationers' who leave the South to work one day a week, six hours," he says. "I know hundreds of people who live the same life as me. I meet them at night on trains, in stations; 80 percent are women, mothers, who travel, even for a few hours, from Campania throughout Emilia-Romagna, but also to Piedmont and Lombardy. Emilia-Romagna is full of people from Campania." The discomfort experienced for years now turns to anger. "We are among the workers most at risk and we are excluded from the vaccination campaign. We don't have a temporary doctor in Emilia, and Campania only vaccinates staff hired in its own region because the management is entrusted to the schools." In the middle are them: the excluded. Alfonso isn't the only one in his family who faces precarious employment every day. "My daughter, a graduate in Economics and Business, has a substitute teaching position in a small town near Valmontone, a four-hour commute every day from the province of Salerno." And the vaccine? "She won't be able to get it," he says. "The Lazio Region manages vaccinations through general practitioners, and obviously a commuter can't be left without healthcare in their usual place of residence. Besides, she works with vulnerable individuals, and getting vaccinated would be essential."
But Alfonso isn't the only one trying to figure out how to join the immunization campaign these days. Raffaella Casciello, a young teacher from Scafati at a Roman school, has also run into the bureaucratic bug. "Although the school is well organized to ensure the safety of both staff and students, there's a bureaucratic problem that prevents us from getting vaccinated, even though we're among the at-risk groups. Those without a temporary GP can't book an appointment. Negotiations are underway between the Flc CGIL and the Lazio Region to resolve the issue. We hope a solution can be found. The reform of Title V (regional autonomy, ed.) for Health and Education is creating a short circuit that especially penalizes precarious workers," says Raffaella Casciello. And then there's the risk that commuters themselves will become a vehicle for contagion, as they are naturally more exposed than others. "Many people from Campania work in Lazio, and the risk of contagion in schools is minimal because safety standards are met, but commuting can't guarantee the same standards." But it's not just Emilia-Romagna and Lazio that are making the most vulnerable pay the price of bureaucracy. "The same thing is happening in Lombardy," says Raffaella Casciello. "A friend of mine, a substitute administrative teacher in the Milan area, commutes between Scafati and Milan a few days a week. He won't be eligible for the vaccine. Until we have permanent contracts, we'll never be protected."
Rosaria Federico
