Vittorio De Luca of De Luca & Partners said the Confindustria proposal to allow employers to require the green pass to access workplaces and carry out related activities was “appropriate” to open the health passport debate on the protection of workers’ health and production. However, it will have to overcome some significant critical issues. “How is it possible that the employer cannot ask employees if they have been vaccinated when instead we show the vaccination passport to go even to the restaurant or the airport?”

Legally, the Data Protection Authority, has expressed a negative opinion on the possibility of employers asking their employees to provide information on their vaccination status or copies of documents certifying vaccination.

De Luca continued: “There is then a problem of limitation of constitutional personal freedoms and rights such as health and work. Health is protected as a fundamental right of the individual and as an interest of the community. Work must be “actual” (art. 4, paragraph 1, of the Constitution) and it is inconceivable that it is reserved only for workers who have been vaccinated.

Unless there is a legal provision, which at the moment I think can hardly be approved.

Even the solution of changing the temporary assignment to different tasks or remote working has limited practical use.

Think of a worker who is unlikely to work remotely or be assigned to different tasks that do not require access to company premises. Even if we do not consider the critical aspects mentioned above, we cannot overlook that such an initiative could indirectly entail the imposition of a medical treatment, which is hardly compatible with the principle of art. 32 of the Constitution, according to which health treatments (such as vaccination) can only be made compulsory by law.”

That said, in the face of the various critical issues, “a decisive legislative measure that can balance the various constitutional rights with the principle of reasonableness, is desirable.”

Source: Norme & Tributi Plus Diritto de Il Sole 24 ore