Covid is one of the occupational diseases that allow you to get an allowance a month

Covid, under certain conditions, could lead to INAIL coverage for occupational diseases. Here are the latest news.

The INAIL coveragesanctioned for occupational diseases contracted in the workplace, would also apply in the hypothesis of Covid disease.

Any kind of virustherefore also Covid, if developed in the workplace, must be considered, to all intents and purposes, professional diseases. Consequently, workers are entitled to INAIL insurance coverage, without the need to attach a specific cause to the basis of the infection.

This is established by the Court of Cassation, with theOrdinance n. 29435/2022. So let’s analyze the provision and find out the details of the story.

See also the following article: “Is Covid a disabling disease with law 104? The response from the experts is incredible“.

Covid can be an occupational disease: the case analyzed by the Ermellini

The story submitted to the attention of the Supreme Court has as protagonist a registered nurse at a nursing home. The applicant claims the recognition of the INAIL coverage and the related compensation in annuity or capital, following the contraction of the HCV virus disease (cd. Hepatitis C). The request, however, is rejected both at first instance and on appeal.

According to the Court, in fact, the worker has the burden of proving “the causal link dependent on the pathological effects of the occupational accident that has certainly occurred, focusing the question on the certain identification of the fact at the origin of the disease.”

Thus, the nurse decides to appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation, complaining of the violation and erroneous application of art. 2700 of the Civil Code, two articles of the Consolidated Law on the provisions for compulsory insurance against accidents and occupational diseases and the related attached tables.

It also specifies that the working nature the viral disease has been adequately verified by the Compensation Commission; consequently, since this check was carried out by the reference body of the Ministry of Health, INAIL is obliged to recognize the coverage.

For the nurse it is also a mistake to demand proof of the underlying cause of the disease, because the pathology is already qualified by the table as being multifactorial in origin.

Finally, the applicant argues that it is logical to think that the contraction of the virus is strictly linked to the work activity carried out and its duration, in the absence of extra professional factors. In fact, he had already demonstrated that he had not contracted the disease before taking the RSA (on the basis of the attached blood tests) and that in the performance of his duties included the dressing and the aid to elderly patients suffering from bedsores.

You may also be interested in the following article: “Law 104 and occupational disease with these symptoms, not everyone knows“.

Can viruses cause occupational diseases? The decision of the Supreme Court

The Cassationafter a careful analysis of all the reasons for the appeal, decides for theacceptance.

Specifically, it declares the following principle: “in the compulsory insurance against accidents at work, the action of microbial or viral factors which, penetrating the human organism, determine the alteration of the anatomical-physiological balance is also a violent cause. It is necessary that this action, even if its effects appear after a certain time, is related to the performance of the work activity, even in the absence of a specific violent cause underlying the infection; the relative demonstration can also be provided in court by means of simple presumptions.”

The Court of Appeal had completely ignored this principle, supporting the obligation to identify the specific fact that had given rise to the disease.