The peak of infections puts productivity in crisis

The pandemic has been the “new (a) normal” for two years now, but it still knows how to catch us unprepared. That the high number of infections from Covid-19, with the consequent quarantines of the positives and the close contacts of the latter, could have become a problem for the economic sector of the country had already been hypothesized at the end of December. The situation we are experiencing in recent weeks seems to confirm this.

In fact, in several sectors, the lack of personnel is making it more difficult to guarantee services and openings. About 3% of the staff of Ferrovie dello Stato is at home due to Covid-19 positivity or quarantine, a situation that has led to the cancellation of 550 trains out of the more than 6 thousand scheduled for the week. Absences for the same reasons have also caused slowdowns in cleaning operations in some large cities and certainly have put and can put in greater difficulty small and medium-sized enterprises, public establishments and, in general, all those activities that count on a number of limited number of employees.

“What we are experiencing is a situation that affects all sectors, but there are those who suffer more and those less, depending on the organization of work and the number of people involved”, declares the Secretary General of Confesercenti Mauro Bussoni, “We have repeatedly stressed the difficulties affecting companies in the trade, tourism and services sectors, in particular those less structured, where the replacement of personnel is difficult. I am thinking of companies that have fewer than 10-15 employees or of the catering sector: if the cook or kitchen workers fall ill, for example, it becomes a problem to be able to replace them ».

The causes of an unprecedented situation

This slowdown in production activities due to Covid-19 is a completely new situation, which had not manifested itself in these terms in the past. The probable prevalence of the Omicron variant, which spreads faster than the previous ones, and a number of positives that have never been so high certainly matter. Over 2 million were ascertained on 10 January, not counting those who self-quarantined themselves after a quick positive swab without going through the ASL channels. The difficulty in accessing the tampons and the skipped tracing of the infections, then, do not help.

“There is an objective risk that many companies find themselves unable to organize their work”, continues Bussoni. In the early stages of the pandemic “there were more drastic conditions: either it was kept closed, or it was kept open. Now, however, the situation is anomalous. It is possible to keep the business open and more things need to be done regarding safety, but there is a much wider spread of infections, with many asymptomatic people, who in any case cannot go to work, and with a great demand to do tampons. Those who are able to shift staff and can reason on different numbers, will be less in difficulty. But there are those who may find themselves in complicated conditions ». Some may resort to smartworking, enabling the possibility of remote work for the positive but asymptomatic employee. It is evident, however, that this solution is not feasible for everyone.

Extraordinary interventions are needed

The risk, according to the Secretary of Confesercenti, is that we find ourselves in a condition similar to a lockdown – that is, forced to keep the business closed – without, however, there being the refreshments that were foreseen during the national lockdown. “We hope that all the measures that have been taken, while putting some burdens on our businesses, can in the end actually represent the main way out of a situation that is currently complicated. We asked the Government and the Minister of Labor that the conditions be created to be able to replace those unable to work in shorter terms, as well as urged the reintroduction of the Covid-19 extraordinary cash box, because there are activities – in particular hotels, discos , who carries out events … – who are not yet in a position to operate. Extraordinary interventions are needed to avoid that the only prospect is leaving people at home. The government has already made a commitment and has announced an allocation of 2 billion which should cover this case. We hope that the measure will be adopted as soon as possible ».