Last week, Francis condemned employers who exploit workers through temporary contracts or by not offering health insurance.

He called such employers "blood suckers" who turn people into "slaves of labour".

But several lay workers at the Vatican have told Crux that Francis should consider their own conditions.

"If it was up to Pope Francis, we'd all work for free," one Vatican employee said.

The Vatican workers spoke to Crux on the condition that they not be identified.

In 2014, the Vatican announced an end to new employee hires and imposed a freeze on wage-increases and overtime in an effort to cut costs and offset budget shortfalls.

It was decided to make much greater use of volunteers.

New lay people are still being hired to work in the Vatican today, but under what are known as "religious contracts".

These contracts are supposed to be for religious men and women coming to Rome to fulfil a specific task, for a period ranging from 10 months to a year.

Since religious communities normally provide health insurance, pension and benefits, the Vatican doesn't have to cover them, and doesn't do so for a lay employee hired under these contracts.

This is the case of many people working today at Vatican Radio, for instance, or the Vatican Museums.

In most cases, the employees add, people under these contracts end up working for many years, with no benefits, no guaranteed vacation days or no health insurance, hoping to eventually see their situation regularised.

The average Vatican employee makes around US$22,000 a year, tax free.

Normal employees can get access to some benefits such as petrol and tax-free shopping.

Italy provides a National Health Service.

The Vatican has a working force of roughly 4600 employees, three quarters of which are lay people.

Sources

• Crux
• Image: Reuters

When a New York Times report drew attention to this situation, the archdiocese insisted it was paying "under protest" and only because it could not control the union's health-care programmes.

The Times report, which focuses on about 3000 employees at the nursing homes and health clinics operated by the archdiocese, said the archdiocese, albeit reluctantly, has been paying for a health care plan that covers contraception and even abortion for these workers.

The archdiocese belongs to the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes, a multi-employer organisation that negotiates with the union every few years for a joint labour contract.

The Times quoted Bruce McIver, the president of the league since 1991, as saying he recalled that some Catholic organisations had expressed concern about paying for the contraception benefits in the mid- to late 1990s.

But in recent years, as the number of Catholic hospitals in the city dwindled, "they just kind of stopped, from my perspective, paying attention to this issue," he said.

"Eventually, the Catholics just said, you know, we are going to ignore the issue and pay into the fund and people are going to make their own choices about contraception and so forth."

Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling said that Cardinal John J. O'Connor and the archdiocese objected to these services being included in the health insurance plan when joining the league in the 1990s.

But the cardinal then decided "there was no other option if the Catholic Church was to continue to provide health care to these union-affiliated employees in the city of New York," Zwilling said.

In opposing mandatory contraceptive coverage in the "Obamacare" federal health plan, Cardinal Dolan has repeatedly said that it would be a gross violation of religious freedom to compel Catholic institutions to pay into plans that provide contraceptive coverage.

Sources:

New York Times

Archdiocese of New York

Image: CatholicPhilly