VATICAN CITY, Feb. 18 (Reuters) – The Vatican has told employees that they risk losing their jobs if they refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons.
A decree from Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, in effect the governor of Vatican City, said that getting a vaccine was “the responsible choice” because of the risk of harming other people.
The Vatican City, the world’s smallest state with 108 hectares, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. The vaccination program began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was one of the first to receive the shot.
The seven-page decree says those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons can get another job, presumably where they would interact with fewer people, but will receive the same pay even if the new post is a demotion.
But the decree said that those who refuse to receive a vaccination without sufficient reason would be subject to a specific provision in a 2011 law on workers’ rights and obligations.
According to the article in the 2011 law, workers who refuse “preventive measures” may be subject to “varying degrees of consequences that may lead to dismissal”.
The decree was signed on February 8 and later posted on the website of the governor’s department.
Pope Francis is a strong supporter of vaccines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“It’s an ethical choice because you gamble with your health, with your life, but you also gamble with the lives of others,” he said in an interview with an Italian television station last month.
The Vatican has mandated a COVID-19 vaccination for journalists accompanying Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq next month.
Bertello, who signed the decree, tested positive for the coronavirus in December and went into self-isolation.
There are less than 30 cases of coronavirus in the Vatican City, most of them under the Swiss Guard, living in a communal barracks. (Reporting by Philip Pullella Editing by Gareth Jones)