This is a first for the Vatican. The world's smallest country is in the grip of an unprecedented labor dispute, with around 50 of its employees threatening to take the ecclesiastical authorities to court if drastic changes to their working conditions are not made. All are employed by the Vatican Museums, one of the world's most important repositories of masterpieces – priceless treasures ranging from the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel to the Renaissance paintings in the Pinacoteca and its collection of ancient statues. In a notice sent at the end of April to Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, who presides over the Governorate of Vatican City State, the museums' supervisory authority, employees denounced personnel management methods that threatened their health and "dignity."

The contents of the document, whose existence was first reported by Corriere della Sera on May 12, testify to a deep malaise, with employees complaining of being treated "like commodities." They report underpaid overtime, completely discretionary promotion decisions and a system of de facto house arrest in the event of illness, with Vatican inspectors able to carry out their inspections at any time of the day. According to the document submitted by 47 attendants, a restaurant owner and a bookshop employee, employees caring for relatives with serious disabilities have also been discriminated against.

In addition, the Vatican is demanding reimbursement from its employees for the salaries they received during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like all other cultural sites, the museums were closed at the time, and their managers now believe that the hours paid and not worked at the time are owed to the employer.

The notice sent to the Vatican authorities also highlights the deteriorating safety conditions that put employees and visitors at risk. With a daily attendance of between 25,000 and 30,000, far too high for the structure, the museums are said to lack a sufficient number of emergency exits and adequate air conditioning, while the teams in charge of the metal detectors at the entrances are said not to be following protocols to the letter.

In their struggle, the Vatican employees are being assisted by a singular figure on the Italian scene, the renowned lawyer Laura Sgro. One of the few professionals accredited to the Holy See, she is accustomed to confrontations with the ecclesiastical hierarchy, even if the cases she usually handles involve much deeper mysteries than those of pontifical labor law. Sgro is the lawyer for the family of Emanuela Orlandi, a young Vatican citizen who disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the age of 15 in 1983 and was never found.

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