Italy's Green Pass rules will affect 23 million workers from Friday.

The Italian government's plan to require all workers in Italy to have a covid Green Pass has met a hurdle as dockers at the north-eastern port of Trieste threaten to stop all work on Friday when the new rules come into force.

"If the Green Pass obligation in the workplace is not withdrawn, activity in the port of Trieste will come to a halt" - the dockers' spokesman Stefano Puzzer told Huffington Post - adding that similar actions would spread to "Genoa and almost all ports" in Italy.

• What are Italy's new Green Pass rules for workers?

From Friday the Green Pass - a certificate showing that people have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from covid-19 - will be compulsory for all workers, in both the public and private sectors, in a move affecting around 23 million people.

Puzzer said that in Trieste "40 per cent of the dockers are not vaccinated, but 850 workers out of a thousand joined the protest", adding that "economic damage, if there is any, will be caused by the stubbornness of the Italian government alone by maintaining this criminal measure."

Under the government's Green Pass system, unvaccinated workers can still go to work but only if they undergo a €15 covid test every 48 hours, at their own expense.

• Green Pass: How to get Italy's digital covid cert and how it works

The Huffington Post reports that the interior ministry made a concession, in order to keep the port's essential activities in operation, by offering dockers free coronavirus tests until 31 December, when the measure is due to expire.

However the Trieste workers refused the offer, calling instead for the Green Pass obligation to be dropped.

Labour minister Andrea Orlando also opposed the idea of free tests, reports Huffington Post, saying it reduced the incentive to get vaccinated.

The situation in Trieste presents a headache for the government as it faces a resurgence in the protest movement against the Green Pass.

From 15 October, those who go to work without the health certificate risk fines of between €600 and €1,500.

Details about the Green Pass can be found - in Italian - on the Certificazione Verde website while for official information about the covid-19 situation in Italy - in English - see the health ministry website. 

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