Here below the contribution by Andrea Volpato, President of the company Fravol based inVigonza (Padova)…
Andrea Volpato
President, Fravol (Vigonza, Padua)
www.fravol.it
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
“Let me say that all Fravol employees have rolled up their sleeves. We introduced smart working for all offices, from sales to service, from finance to engineering. Twenty-five percent of staff are working from home. We have also created a WhtasApp group for company-wide communications, from useful information to sanitary guidelines, with regular updates on the health conditions of our employees, to keep the situation closely monitored. We will use this group also to communicate when our business will resume activity”.
- What do you think is changing or will change radically?
“Everything will change. And changing everything is the only way to say that we have learned the lesson of this emergency. Think about continental and intercontinental journeys, we will need to increase safety measures… I believe this situation will have not only a strong economic impact as everyone fears, but also massive psychological consequences. People will be afraid to go “back to normal”: going to a football match, travel in crowded transportation, walk around in shopping malls packed with people… The quarantine will improve the situation, but we must wait for a vaccine to be safer”.
- What should the authorities and all of us do?
“I must admit that seeing production stop was a hard blow. I felt abandoned as entrepreneur, and it made me wonder when I heard that other European countries have taken immediate measure to help companies work at their best, with support and investment plans. We are standing still in the worst period, with an unstable government, financial problems in Italy and difficult relationships with Europe. We’ve been discussing for three weeks what we should do, but as long as no major and quick measure is taken, many companies will not be able to overcome this crisis and meet their payment deadlines. Waiting has negative effects. We need a suspension of taxes from the first day of layoffs, a credit fund for long-term loans, possibly spread out over thirty o forty years with zero interest rates, to inject cash into the companies. Let’s be clear, we need to launch investment plans so that companies can plan for the future.
The European Union should work better and consider also support for companies, not only for employees, otherwise we cannot recover quickly”.
