It ended in the night: agreement made on the school safety protocol in view of the start of the new year. But with a sensational tear: the principals are not there. And the NPC does not sign. While the Anief remains determined to lodge appeals against the obligation of the Green Pass and has slipped away from the signature arrived instead from Flc.Cgil, Cisl and Uil school.
The reason for the clash was on the free tampons for unvaccinated teachers paid by the schools: here the negotiation had stalled. Who pays them? The unions do not want the cost to be passed on to the workers. The principals, with the NPC sitting at the table, believe that those resources entrusted to the institutions for the health emergency – 350 million – can be used in other ways. But in the end, in the final text that came out in the night, the formulation remained.
The ministry – it reads – authorizes institutions, “through agreements with health companies or with affiliated diagnostic structures”, to use extraordinary resources for the management of health emergencies “also to allow school staff to carry out diagnostic swabs, according to modalities envisaged by the Health Authority; the Ministry, in order not to aggravate the administrative commitment of the educational institutions, will provide the necessary administrative and accounting support through agreements and operational indications, identifying simplified procedures “.
“We are implementing every action necessary to ensure the return to the classroom with targeted and timely interventions”, the comment of the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi. “The agreement reached is a further step and testifies to the common commitment to guarantee the right to be able to return to school safely and in presence”.
Bianchi recalls that over 2 billion have been allocated for the return to school. “With the Protocol that has just been signed, we have intervened in support of the most fragile situations and people. As far as distancing is concerned, we intervene where there are the largest classes, which are concentrated above all in secondary schools in the urban suburbs. We have resources already allocated. for these situations, funds that we will now distribute quickly. The schools, then, in agreement with the local health authorities and the extraordinary Commissioner, will be able to intervene in favor of the most vulnerable, specifically those who are not vaccinable and who are therefore also the most exposed to contagion. Targeted interventions, therefore, in favor of the most difficult situations for a school that wants to reopen without forgetting anyone “.
Tamponi, the wrath of the principals
“The NPC did not sign the Protocol because it is contrary to the possibility that schools bear the cost of tampons – the president said Antonello Giannelli – Furthermore, the text does not clarify which unvaccinated employees are entitled to reimbursement of the tampon. The PNA does not intend to favor any logic of ‘replacement of vaccination with a tampon. It must be clear: this is the protection of collective health and this is a priority for us. We reserve the right to review our position if and when the text of the protocol will be modified in the sense requested by us “.
The vice president of the PNA of Lazio Mario Rusconi clarifies the conditions: “Our association could sign on condition that it is clearly written in the agreement that the free tampons are reserved for fragile personnel, that is, for those who for proven health reasons cannot get vaccinated”.
On the same wavelength too Rosolino Cicero, president of the national association of collaborators of school administrators who declares: “The myopia of politicians and protempore union representatives is confirmed once again, with all respect for the history of the Italian trade union. We can launch a provax petition to protect our school communities “Is it right to squander millions of euros to comply with ideological, spurious and opportunistic novax positions? This is the time for clarity, determination and courage”.
among the contrary voices there is also that of the deputy Pd Lucia Ciampi: “The demand of the unions to make schools pay for the tampons of the no-vax teachers is frankly incomprehensible”. Laura Scalfi and Maria Pia Bucchioni, responsible for the School of Action (Calenda) say: “The claim of the trade unions to make the schools pay for swabs for the no vax professors is disrespectful to the thousands of teachers who, while retaining their doubts, have chosen to get vaccinated. Leaving aside the burden. economic for the institutions, it is precisely the message that is launched that is devastating: those who do not get vaccinated are treated better than those who do. And the swabs for the students, on which the school is based? “.
Agreement, the unions: “It is not a pro no-vax rule”
It doesn’t fit Maddalena Gissi, secretary of the CISL-school: “It is not a pro no vax rule: in addition to not being true, it is unacceptable not only for us, but also for the Government. In reality, the question is absolutely different: we have asked and obtained insert in the protocol as an alternative to the Green Pass the possibility for school staff to take a swab before entering school. that the regularity of the school year is guaranteed “.
A “positive” signal for the whole country is the signing of the protocol on school safety between the government and trade unions in view of the start of the new year, writes the CISL secretary on Twitter. Luigi Sbarra, who adds: “This is the right method to ensure teaching with the necessary climate of sharing and responsibility”
” We have obtained from the government the formal commitment to confirm and strengthen the measures already envisaged to guarantee safety, starting with the immediate activation of an experimental plan of intervention on educational institutions that have particularly large classes through the allocation of specific resources to split the classes and ensure distance – he comments Francesco Sinopoli, general secretary of the flc cgil – We expect to be able to count on additional staff without forcing schools to form the large classes that had been split last year ”.
Sinopoli adds that a specific table will be opened by August to “expand safeguards for fragile subjects and the free use of tampons for staff through agreements with the local health authorities”. And “we have also obtained a commitment to schedule the discussion on the Green Pass which will produce important management problems for educational institutions, such as the appointment of temporary alternates”.
The obligation of the Green Pass for teachers – with suspension from salary for those who do not have it after five days of absence which will be deemed unjustified – is another node: it will be contained in a specific note that the administration will send to educational institutions in the next few days. It remains understood that those who cannot get vaccinated for health reasons will be exempted from the Green Pass and the consequent penalties. Contrary is theAnief who wants to give legal battle over the decree. While Pino Turi, secretary of the Uil Scuola, with reference to the free tampons for professors, he said he was satisfied: “We have mitigated an improvised and unjust decree and opened a reasoning on the world of work. For us there is an agreement: our requests have been accepted . Among these, the attention to fragile workers and the increase in the workforce to allow the management of passes and the splitting of crowded classes “.
The vaccinated in the school, here are the numbers
There are 213,277 teachers, janitors and administrators who have not been vaccinated and who have not received even the first dose of the vaccine, equal to 14.55% of the school staff according to the weekly report of the extraordinary commissioner Figliuolo. Even if the unions and the principals themselves have always maintained that the figure is underestimated, it does not take into account who has been vaccinated by adhering to the calls by age group and not by professional categories.
The agreement, more Covid staff for the distancing
Negotiations also ran aground on the distancing. The CTS and then the ministry in a note in July indicated it as a priority security measure, but “where possible”. Alternatively, the obligation of masks. Too little for the unions, a point on which the Flc-Cgil especially fought while the principals were in support of the flexible line on the metro. Also because there is the problem of spaces that local authorities have to guarantee and many agreements signed last year have not been renewed. In short, there are no spaces in many institutions.
The point, in the final text, is formulated as follows: “And provides the respect from a distance interpersonal from at least a metro (is in position static that dynamic) so far as logistically possible e and maintains also in zone white the distance from due meters between i desks e the teacher’s desk of the teacher. With reference to the services educational of childhood, non being always possible to guarantee adoption from some measures from prevention (Which the distancing e use from masks), is registered mail a didactics a groups stable “.
The guarantees were given on the personnel, through the alternates of the Covid staff even if the law provides for recruitment only until December. The ministry undertakes to intervene in the event of large classes by allocating appropriate resources in sight, the minister had already said Patrizio Bianchi, of the more organic intervention with the resources of the NRP on the chicken coop classes.
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