VIDEO | From Federmanager Rome 5 proposals to the Lazio Region for safety

Zei: "In the first 2 months of 2024 +6% of injuries"

ROME – Reward companies that invest in safety, improve safety education in the workplace, promote a new culture of safety starting from schools, finance intelligent monitoring systems and advanced personal protective equipment and recognize the figure of ‘responsible for the prevention and protection service’ as a person in charge of a public service, independent from the employer, to guarantee greater impartiality and effectiveness.

These are the 5 proposals to improve workplace safety illustrated by the president of Federmanager Rome, Gherardo Zei, during the annual assembly of Federmanager Rome and delivered virtually to the Lazio Region.

“Net of Covid cases – said Zei – in 2023, according to Inail data, there were almost 600,000 reports of accidents and over a thousand deaths. But to these must be added those not detected by Inail and the total of deaths due to accidents, including those while commuting, rises to 1,400 while occupational diseases are increasing by 19.7%. Based on the latest available Eurostat reading, updated to 2018, Italy has an incidence of 2.25 deaths. per 100,000 employed, well above the EU average of 1.77”.

The data from the Vega Engineering Safety and Environment Observatory, updated to 29 February 2024, “indicate a worsening with an index of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 employed – added Zei – Furthermore, in the first two months of 2024, in Lazio, accidents at work increased compared to the same period in 2023 (+6% from 5827 to 6228) and deaths doubled, from 6 to 11”.

According to Zei, an effective safety culture is lacking in Italy: “In the last twenty years, labor regulations have increased greatly, becoming hypertrophic, but not only have they not improved safety at work, they have significantly worsened them. The deaths at work they have not decreased at all”.

And “there is no one who cares more about workplace safety than industrial managers – underlined Zei – all of us are or have been in various capacities in positions that carry this great human responsibility much more than Nonetheless, we often hear managers being held accountable for safety at work, making them real scapegoats even when they are not involved in the dynamics that lead to accidents”.

Going into detail of the 5 proposals “the current regulatory system provides that companies that do not comply with the rules are rightly sanctioned – explained Zei – We propose to go beyond the sanction to introduce a reward system for companies that invest in safety , assuming tax relief for companies that have not had accidents or injuries at work for a certain period”.

Then, “new forms for the transfer and exchange of knowledge, using new ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) with attractive learning methodologies and exploiting the powerful tools that Artificial Intelligence offers us”.< /p>

And again “safety education, in all its forms, at work, on the streets, in domestic places, should become a subject of teaching and study – continued Zei – Because only an integrated system of knowledge, which start from afar and address the issue of security in all its various aspects, it can produce truly effective results”.

Through intelligent digital systems, “safety and health at work can be promoted and therefore the use of technology must be increasingly widespread to guarantee the well-being of workers – continued Zei – It is necessary to incentivize and finance intelligent digital monitoring systems that implement artificial intelligence to develop predictive models, improve wearable devices, disseminate intelligent personal protective equipment, such as exoskeletons, to minimize damage and promote health and safety.

Investments in new technologies should be financed by specific ‘Safety Bonuses'”. Finally, “let’s make the figure of the Head of the Prevention and Protection Service truly third by giving him the qualification of public service representative and perhaps – concluded Zei – also making the training and remuneration of this figure independent of the employer for the entire duration of the service”.