Work, Epar launches new models on safety (with extra training hours)

EPAR will be presenting in Bologna new technical training services for companies, starting with the 'Valida' platform.

Bologna - When it comes to workplace safety, "we believe that training is a fundamental element, with safeguards throughout the entire process, from delivery to monitoring and certification to workers. This ensures that safety becomes culturally relevant to workers, with dedicated training sessions."

This is the impetus of Manlio Sortino, president of Epar, a joint body of Cifa and Confsal, today at BolognaFiere During a meeting at 'Ambiente Lavoro', the leading Italian trade fair for the sector. The occasion was the presentation of a report on health and safety in collective bargaining, to which Sortino added: "Since EPAR was included in the national directory of joint bodies, we have been developing, among other activities, new services for our member companies.

I'm thinking of all the work done to certify workplace safety skills and, within this framework, the creation of Epar regional centers, which are reference points for companies and workers on training and prevention. But we're also working," explains the Epar president, "on MOGs, organizational management models, creating flows so that, in a short time, many companies, as well as workers and local communities, can equip themselves with other platforms."

The fair will highlight the new technical services supporting all of this, starting with an innovative platform called 'Valida'. Valentina Margiotta, EPAR vice president and Confsal director, emphasizes that it is "a digital platform we promoted that allows us to manage the entire training process from start to finish, from planning to delivery and monitoring, all the way to certification."

All this in compliance with the criteria and standards of the Consolidated Law on Health and Safety, "ensuring," continues Margiotta, "transparency and quality in the training process, up to the accreditation of EPAR territorial centers at the national level. This training may be funded by the interprofessional body FonArcom," effectively triggering a synergy between bilateral instruments.

"We believe that, in the context of the digital transition, it is important that businesses and workers not passively endure the process, but rather be at the center of new ongoing training," Margiotta emphasizes. Meanwhile, Giovanni Luciano, president of Confsal's Occupational Health and Safety Observatory, emphasizes the importance of bargaining and bilateralism: "Especially in small and medium-sized businesses, but not only, the social partners are reaching agreements and creating bilateral or joint bodies to provide safety services to businesses and benefits to workers, triggering a virtuous cycle even in the absence of a 'factory'. One of the aspects we are focusing on, for example, is the provision of additional training hours beyond the basic regulatory framework," as required by the Consolidated Law on Health and Safety.

Overtime "is provided for in very few contracts," adds Luciano, "and this is why bilateralism comes into play, to improve the quality of training. Bilateral organizations, the serious and respected ones, certainly help a lot in this field and can do their part." Therefore, the solution could be "more bargaining for more bilateralism, to spread training and prevention for the benefit of safety," concludes the president of the Confsal Observatory.