• Government-regions agreement on upcoming reopenings. Conte: "They walk together in this new phase"
  • The new rules in force from Monday 18 May

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May 16, 2020 Barriers open for 6 out of 10 businesses, including shops, bars and restaurants, starting Monday 18 May. It is above all the fear of working at a loss, but also the rebus of the safety rules and the fear of the coronavirus that keep companies from reopening.

This is the picture that emerges from the survey conducted by Swg for Confesercenti on a sample of entrepreneurs from the retail and restaurant trade.

There are 62% of entrepreneurs intending to open on Monday 18 May, against 27% who have already decided to remain closed. The percentage of those who do not know what to do and will decide over the weekend reaches 11%. Among those who will surely remain closed, 68% indicate the lack of convenience of opening as a reason.

insecurity
But there is also a 13% who still continues to have safety concerns, also due to the long uncertainty on the relative legislation. An emblematic case - reads the survey - is that of the markets: each municipality is providing its own protocol, often conflicting with the others, throwing entrepreneurs into uncertainty. The lack of clarity also affects 13% of operators who have not yet adapted the premises and / or work organization to the new provisions.

The expenses to be incurred
A task weighing on the jobs that will have to bear, among sanitization, Dpi for workers and customers: 8 out of 10 shops and public establishments certify that they have not been able to obtain the masks at a reduced price.

The precarious future
In general, the fear of not being able to overcome the difficult phase is growing: 36% of entrepreneurs fear to close the business, and a further 41% believe they are at risk in case of unexpected prolongations of the emergency. Both figures are up by 4 and 6% respectively, compared to the previous survey, carried out on April 14th. However, almost 82% are worried about the future.

"Uneconomic" conditions  
"For companies, the reopening is an obstacle course and against time. The agreement of this night between the State-Regions Conference and the Government opens an important window, perhaps decisive to get out of the uncertainty that characterized the theme of the reopenings to date - Confesercenti writes - most of all the prediction of being forced to work in uneconomic conditions has weighed in. Entrepreneurs fear the impact of the rigidity of the guidelines on the activities, and of being crushed between the increase in the costs of management and the foreseeable drop in revenues. They are also worried by the issue of legal responsibilities. We need to change the pace: we need applicable guidelines and direct economic aid to companies to support them even in this delicate phase of the restart ".