Vatican: Employees threaten class action lawsuit – “unacceptable working conditions”

As of: 11:10 am| Reading time: 2 minutes

FAccording to an Italian media report, up to 50 employees of the Vatican Museums are threatening to file a class action lawsuit against the Holy See over “unacceptable working conditions.” The staff – including museum guards, a restorer and a library employee – wrote a fiery letter to the state administration (prefecture) of the small Papal State.

They demanded better working conditions, the Corriere della Sera daily newspaper reported on Sunday.

Staff had previously summoned notorious Vatican lawyer Laura Sgro, who, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, sent the letter to Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vergés Alzaga, the prefect of the province and thus effectively head of the Vatican City government.

“Your Excellency, working conditions violate the dignity and health of every employee,” she says. If business rules don’t change radically, they want to sue the Vatican together.

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Employees complain about what they consider to be low salaries and inadequate health protection. 49 out of a total of about 700 employees are also concerned about the lack of security precautions in museums.

Up to 30,000 visitors are allowed per day, although the maximum number of visitors is 24,000 per day. In addition, the small number of gendarmes creates problems for the guards, who are sometimes attacked by harassing visitors, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Such a class action would be the first of its kind in the Vatican, which is governed by Pope Francis. However, it is still unclear exactly how the lawsuit will proceed. However, employees said they saw no other option but to go public.

They are said to have tried to reach an agreement with the Holy See in the past, but to no avail. The frustration is clear: “The Pope talks about rights, but we are seen as mere commodities,” she says in her letter.