As EU borders are shut, frontier workers feel the pain, 12 March 2020 

The new measures are expected to impact some 60-70,000 commuters who cross between Italy and Austria, and a similar number who travel between Switzerland and Italy each day. Many have high-paying jobs in private banks, hospitals, construction sites and factories. But others are freelance or work illegally and don't have work permits or written proof of their job. Switzerland also sees huge numbers cross into the country from France and Germany, two other European countries with high numbers of infections...Cross-border workers also fear a lack of legal protection from the travel restrictions put in place due to the outbreak. "Unlike absence due to sickness, absence due to a border closure is not covered by any insurance and would give firms the right to stop paying salaries," Hilmar Schneider, chief executive of the Institute from Labor Economics, based in Bonn, Germany, told DW..."Close to two-thirds of cross-border workers have jobs which require a low or secondary level of education, so this group is more vulnerable [to layoffs]," [Isilda] Mara [economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies] told DW...