The time required is that deemed minimal and indispensable to “finish the activities” already in progress. Italian tanneries, therefore, by Wednesday, March 25th, 2020, will have to conclude the production processes started last week and, respecting the rules of the Government Decree published yesterday, will temporarily close production until April 3rd.
Until March 25th
A generalised and formalised derogation yesterday, for which UNIC – Italian Tanneries has been active to respond to companies in real time. Their need was simple: to avoid that the interruption of the activity in progress (from drumming to drying) generated not only the loss of all materials, but, above all, the possibility of creating problematic hygiene and health situations. The Government Decree, states that “companies whose activities are suspended have until March 25th, 2020, included, to complete the activities, including the shipment of goods in storage”.
Who stays open
As UNIC – Italian Tanneries communicates in a statement, “the Government, following the escalation of Covid-19 emergency, suspended all activities except:
– those that provide services of public or essential utility;
– those for the production, transport, marketing and delivery of drugs, health technology and medical-surgical devices, as well as agricultural and food products, and those which are in any case functional to cope with the emergency;
– those of aerospace, defence and strategic importance for the national economy, but subject to the authorisation of the Prefect;
– those that can be carried out remotely or with agile work;
– professional and commercial, except as provided in the Prime Ministerial Decree of March 11th 2020;
– those that are indicated in Annex 1 of the government measure, among which, however, the tanning activity is not included.
The continuous production cycle
As UNIC explains, “upon communication to the Prefect of the Province where the production activity is located, the following are also allowed:
- a) the activities that are functional to ensure the continuity of the chains of permitted activities;
- b) the activities of continuous production cycle plants, whose interruption would seriously damage the plant itself or create the danger of accidents;
but the Prefect may, however, suspend the aforementioned activities, if he/she believes that the conditions for going on do not exist. For systems aimed at providing an essential public service, communication to the Prefect will not be necessary. It is believed that the plants of tanneries whose closure could create a serious damage to the plant or a danger of accidents may fall in case b). For example: biological factory purifiers at the foot of the factory, thermal systems with diathermic oil”.
The raw material
“As for case a) – continues UNIC – Italian Tanneries – we are evaluating whether the tanning activity, as invoked by our association during the decree formation, could, whether suspension times lasted for a long time, be included in in this category of activities, being functional for the disposal of waste from the meat industry, which is one of the permitted activities”. However, UNIC – Italian Tanneries concludes, “this hypothesis will be sustainable only if and when those activities for which ours is functional (such as slaughtering) will disclose to the competent authorities the problems of health and environmental risk deriving from the putrefaction of a high number of unused hides”.
