Coronavirus-ravaged Italian region ‘to introduce SEVEN DAY working week’ to get crippled economy back on track
ONE of Italy's worst affected coronavirus regions is considering a seven day working week to kick start its crippled economy.
Attilo Fontana, president of the Lombardy region, proposed the dramatic plan for when the country emerges from lockdown next month.
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The area around Milan, an economic powerhouse of the country, has suffered more than half of the 20,000 nationwide deaths from Covid-19.
It is the home of the Italian stock exchange as well as financial HQs and the lucrative fashion industry.
Lombardy is also home to thousands of Chinese workers employed in garment factories who are thought to have contributed to the rapid virus spread after returning from New Year festivities.
Speaking about the country's proposed relaxation of lockdown on May 4, Mr Fontana said:''Spreading the working week over seven days instead of five with a rotating shift pattern to avoid crowding on public transport will increase productivity.''
GETTING BACK TO WORK
He added the region had already lost a £1bn last month from the lockdown and financial experts predict it will take at least two years to claw back the nine per cent contraction of the Italian economy - which is the third largest in the euro zone.
Britain is seen as being ''two weeks'' behind Italy in terms of coronavirus where infection rates are now beginning to fall.
Italy was already teetering on the brink of recession before the coronavirus hit, with GDP falling 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2019 from the previous three months.
Current lockdown measures in the country - which has the third highest number of infected cases after the US and Spain - have been imposed until May 3.
Earlier this week, authorities allowed some non-essential stores such as book shops and launderettes to re-open to trial social distancing measures among shoppers.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said: "This is a difficult but necessary decision for which I take all political responsibility.”
The government has not disclosed how and when it will start easing a nationwide ban on business activities deemed as non-essential.
Italy's fashion leaders called on the government today to loosen restrictions imposed in response to the crisis to allow them to resume some production, warning that a prolonged lockdown risked irreparably damaging the sector.
Carlo Capasa, the chairman of the National Fashion Chamber (CNMI), said: "Fashion is a seasonal industry and certain dates are not compressible. Not reopening shortly would mean giving up almost a year's turnover."
Fashion and textile plants throughout the country have shut as they do not fall into the category of essential businesses.
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At least 168,941 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the country while 22,170 have sadly passed away from the contagious respiratory disease.
Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron told the Financial Times populist politicians will win "in Italy, in Spain, perhaps in France and elsewhere" if European countries do not launch a rescue fund that can issue joint debt to cope with the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic.
Governments have "no choice" but to set up a fund that "could issue common debt with a common guarantee", he said
