Work, “More controls and bonuses are needed for those who focus on safety”

Bologna. In a country that counts 1.000 deaths a year and over half a million accidents at work, the issue of safety is always at the center of the debate.

“Cursed” numbers that have employers' associations and interprofessional funds wondering how to improve good practices and create virtuous circles in which those who invest in training are rewarded, with particular attention to new technologies such as artificial intelligence, which can help prevent in the most complex environments.

In this sense, it is a “last mile” synergy with Inail to make the issue of safety structural in Italy. This was discussed during a meeting in Bologna during the Ambiente lavoro event, promoted by Cifa and Confsal.

The event “For a healthy work environment” was attended by Marcello Fiori, general director of Inail, the former Minister of Labor Cesare Damiano, president of the Labor and Welfare Study Center, Andrea Rapacciuolo, interregional director of Northern Labor, Andrea Cafà, president of Cifa and Fonarcom, and Angelo Raffaele Margiotta, general secretary of Confsal.

“Today we proposed to the director of Inail to make available all the data of the companies and workers who have developed training courses with Fonarcom, because maybe we can go and create a good practice that, if tomorrow goes well, can be extended to other interprofessional funds, joint bodies to all the entities that begin training in safety, and finally be able to know in our country who are the people who have done training in safety and who has not yet done it”, the president of Cifa Cafà. A piece of data that is missing when investing in this and that instead is “essential”.

But to seriously address the issue of workplace safety, “ordinary administration” is not enough, extraordinary measures are needed, adds Margiotta, especially from politics. “We acknowledge that the taboo that the Inail surplus went entirely to the Treasury for the reduction of public debt has finally been broken, and President Meloni has anticipated that 650 million euros will be used.”

To do what? Among the proposals on the table, the creation of a “single hub for safety at work” managed by Inail for the tasks of coordinating technical supervision, consultancy, training and information for companies. Why Inail? “Because it is the body that issues the rules for safety prevention, we don’t see any other institution better than Inail”, adds Margiotta.

A commitment, that of Cifa and Confsal on health and safety in the workplace, also confirmed by the recent renewal of their collective bargaining which, in line with current legislation and European recommendations, transforms the protection of health in the workplace from a formal obligation to a strategic lever for the quality of work and the competitiveness of companies.

Among the most significant innovations of the contract renewal, two elements stand out: the introduction of artificial intelligence in the predictive assessment of risks, with the integration of machine learning technologies, and the strengthening of the role of the supervisor, as a decisive operational hub in the safety chain, providing for this figure the recognition of a specific emolument commensurate with the degree of risk of the production sector, mandatory civil liability and legal protection insurance coverage with respect to the tasks performed and two-year training. And again, economic incentives for companies that hire technicians exclusively responsible for health and safety at work in the company.

In this sense, the role of artificial intelligence “can certainly help if the new devices of the digitalization of artificial intelligence are used for prevention”, explains Cesare Damiano. For example, “on budgets for smart construction sites, on microchips for personal protective equipment, on webcams to monitor the use of these devices by work teams engaged in the riskiest jobs in construction, agriculture or chemical processing or in cascading contracts”. But we must also pay attention to the risks of this tool, those “from technostress, from invasion of the worker’s privacy… So the role of negotiation is fundamental”.