by Maurizio Di Giusto
15 OTT – Dear manager,
some newspapers have given advances on the “new” decree, which again has very little on the prevention measures, with which the Government and the Ministry of Labor aim to stem the sad numbers linked to deaths at work. Experience teaches everyone that often operating on the wave of emotional conditions is functional to stem the “flaws” but it is rarely useful to give solutions that prevent future unwanted conditions.
Prevention is a different process; it is a process in which today’s investments, with programming and planning, lead to results that are collected in the medium and long term. When we take a plane, the flight crew, before take-off, shows us the actions to be taken in the event of an emergency, information that would not have the same result and attention if given in crisis situations.
Primary Prevention is this, to act before unwanted events occur. The sanctioning system, although useful as a supervisory action, cannot be the only solution to the safety at work emergency; the sanction, in itself, already represents the ascertainment of a critical condition and therefore the presence of a potential danger, for which, instead, the question we should ask ourselves is: why the Prevention system has not worked favoring the occurrence of that NON-security condition? Prevention is sharing, participation, individual and collective choice, strategy.
Given that it is not possible to have a complete view of the decree from the advances published alone, the assumptions that emerge do not show structural changes to the regulatory, organizational, cultural and social systems that would instead be necessary for such an important issue.
The tightening of sanctions, the suspension of activities, cannot be the only tool of Prevention. The only dichotomy safety-sanctions, already present in our regulatory systems, led to those results that today still, in terms of health, we define as an emergency.
The strengthening of labor inspectorates is certainly an important moment for the reduction of undeclared work, for the contributory assessments and for the checks that this subject has in terms of safety, but the fundamental skills in the field of health and safety in work contexts , are in charge of the Health Authorities and the related regional programs that implement the National Prevention Plan, containing the related targeted plans, which (PNP 2020-2025) strengthens the concept of Health.
But precisely because the theme is the health of workers and therefore of citizens, what remains difficult to understand is how the coordination of interventions is attributable to a different subject than those who have such skills in charge, first of all the Ministry of Health and to follow at the organizational levels of the SSN and the SSR. Industrial models teach us how complex processes require strategic network governance, with clear identification of the levels of responsibility and lean organizational contexts in which the constant flows of information allow the activation of efficient and effective decision-making models towards objectives.
If the centrality of the competences in the field of Health and Safety and within the Health Trusts, what is the axiom according to which the strengthening of the Labor Inspectorates does not correspond to an, at least equal, strengthening of the Prevention Departments and related services , in which professionals work who, such as Prevention Technicians in the Environment and in the Workplace, have specific training skills, from basic and post-basic university curricula defined for the purpose, and professional, with appropriate knowledge of the processes productive, in the matter of Legislative Decree 81/08 and subsequent amendments?
Why is regional funding for services always a meager percentage of regional health funds? Why are organizational models not defined even with the development of these professional skills? Why isn’t there a broad sharing of that precious know-how, matured with the establishment of services from 1978 to today, providing structures dedicated to supporting small businesses in favoring the implementation of security in the company?
Every day that passes is a day that we have lost to plan those structural, regulatory, fiscal, organizational, cultural changes, etc. which are functional to a real Prevention planning, the only effective and efficient tool for investing in the health of workers and our children who tomorrow will wake up adults, entrepreneurs, workers, or citizens aware of their roles and responsibilities in such an important issue.
The commitment of legislators on the issue of Health and Safety in the workplace, if it is to be so, must be far-sighted. It is a long process that cannot be limited to the issuing of decrees that are the fruit of the moment; a commitment that puts in the “yard” the planning of system changes that is not based exclusively on the obligations to be guaranteed in companies, but that is accompanied by provisions that have a common vision in the direction of health and safety in work contexts.
Finding suitable solutions cannot be the gift of individuals, but a constant synergistic process between all stakeholders; decision-makers, social partners, business world, sector experts, and anyone who can make a contribution on the subject, without neglecting the presence of those health professionals, competent in the field, who every day check work activities, carry out accident investigations, etc. and are aware of the problems and system needs related to health and safety.
The investment in this topic must start from afar, with a series of regulatory provisions, even different, linked to each other by that red thread that has a clear path and vision to follow. Among these, for example: Prevention is a cultural process, and as such it should be the patrimony of each citizen, or be an integrated part in school programs, in which the seed of correct behavior, in the living and working environments, sprouts in conscience and awareness of the individuals of tomorrow. The world of work today is complex, there is a need, for example, to update the regulation of contracts and sub-contracts that go to the extreme; the sole objective of being able to win orders leads to cuts, to guarantee a minimum profit, which have safety as the first element of sacrifice.
The incidence in the economic context of a country of health costs, given our solidarity system, will always have a significant weight in the state budget, the reduction of this delta, expenses / non-expenses, will be given more and more, with reference to the topic in question, how much we allow companies to invest in security; companies, if not driven by a proper sense of civil responsibility, must see security not only as a mere fulfillment, but as an economic “convenience”, and for this reason bonuses or reward systems are not enough, but the possibility of removing from income should be envisaged business investments, both structural and plant engineering and consultancy by competent professionals certified by recognized university training courses in which the Prevention and safety of the workplace is a concrete part of the educational path.
There is a need to review the regulatory systems of the Safety figures in the company qualifications such as those of Managers and employees of the Prevention Protection Services, Safety Coordinators, etc., must be more precisely contextualized and above all reserved for those who have educational curricular skills recognized not only from courses of a few hours.
History should teach us and then it becomes even more appropriate, in order to understand what is expressed above, to quote a phrase by Louis Pasteur (1884), very relevant in the pandemic context, which I hope will be a moment of reflection for many: “When I meditate on a disease I don’t think I will find a cure, but rather a way to prevent it”.
Maurizio Di Giusto
President of the National Board of Environmental and Workplace Prevention Technicians
October 15, 2021
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