Regulatory choices and legal disputes in the fight against COVID-19 infections in the workplace. A comparison of vaccine mandates in the Italian and US contexts.

This is a comparative study of two countries’ legal and policy actions to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, focusing on Italy and the United States (US). Both nations sustained great loss of life and high infection rates during the first years of the pandemic. This chapter examines how Italy and the United States approached COVID-19 vaccine mandates for workers. Of particular interest are the regulatory choices made, including the choice not to regulate, and the consequences of those choices on the employment relationship. Additionally revealing are the legal grounds upon which regulatory actions were challenged, and how courts balanced the interests at stake. Finally, the way in which the debates over workplace vaccine mandates were framed illuminate national culture and the extent to which each country views labor rights as human rights. To provide context for these insights, the next section examines convergence and divergence in the two countries’ initial responses to the global health emergency presented by COVID-19, and the way in which workplace vaccine mandates were initially embraced.