In Italy, the main rules governing workplace health and safety are set out in Legislative Decree No 81 of 9 April 2008, known as Consolidated Law on Workplace Safety.
The Decree consolidates in a single act several laws adopted over the previous decades, simplifying the national regulatory framework.
The Decree applies to all public and private activity sectors and to all workers, regardless of their type of employment contract.
The Decree lays down the criteria for a proper workplace safety management system, establishing clear responsibilities and obligations for the main players involved and setting out the principles for preventing, controlling and providing protection from the possible risks encountered in the workplace.
It lays down the requirements for controlling workplace risks and refers to other implementing Decrees, national guidelines, rules and standards which are not included in the Consolidated Law but are also mandatory.
Thus, it is your duty to identify the provisions applicable to the specific sector to which your business belongs and take the appropriate action to ensure you meet the requirements.
It is important you keep up to date with any new requirements that may be issued. You can do this by consulting several sources, such as the bulletins of industry associations, publications by national bodies, specialised journals and legal consultants.
Each year, or whenever you are informed that a new rule has entered into force, consider whether the new requirement applies to your company and if so, take the appropriate action to achieve compliance.
Appoint the officer responsible for safety (RSPP)
The officer responsible for safety is identified in the Law by the abbreviation RSPP which stands for Responsabile del Servizio di Prevenzione e Protezione (Officer responsible for the prevention and protection service).
The safety officer (RSPP) must be appointed even if the company only has one worker. You yourself can cover this role as long as:
- your role in the company is that of employer;
- you have attended a qualification course appropriate to you company's risk class, held by a public body, industry association or approved training centre
The number of course hours is as follows:
- low risk: 16 hours;
- medium risk: 32 hours;
- high risk: 48 hours.
your company's workforce does not exceed the following limits:
- craft sector and industrial companies: 30 workers;
- agricultural and animal holdings: 30 workers;
- fishing enterprises: 20 workers;
- other enterprises: 200 workers.
If you cannot or do not intend to be your company's officer responsible for safety (RSPP) you will need to appoint officially to this role a qualified professional, after verifying his professional credentials.
In any case, the presence of the safety officer must be appointed first in order to appoint the competent doctor (if applicable) and to make the risk assessment.
* Except for the industrial enterprises indicated in Annex II to Legislative Decree No 81/08 (e.g. power plants, explosive stores, hospitals and healthcare facilities etc.).
Appoint the competent doctor
The competent doctor must be appointed by enterprises in the specific cases set out in the Consolidated Law on Safety.
If the workers in your enterprise are not engaged in tasks exposing them to specific health risks, they do not need to be placed under health surveillance.
Some examples of exemption from this requirement are white collar workers working at the computer for less than 20 hours per weeks, or shop assistants who serve customers but do not handle heavy items.
However, since health surveillance is a primary prevention measure, when in doubt as to whether it applies to your business, you should ask a competent doctor to make a risk assessment in order to find out whether you do need to appoint this figure.
If this requirement applies to you, contact a professional and sign with him an official appointment letter after verifying his credentials.
The main duty of the competent doctor is to examine your workers to verify they are fit for their specific work duties, to make sure no persons with health problems are exposed to risk agents which may worsen their health, in which case you would incur heavy fines.
Arrange for staff training
After recruiting your personnel, you must provide them with adequate and sufficient training on workplace health and safety, taking into account language issues if you have foreign employees.
The State-Regions Agreement of 21 December 2011 has established the minimum duration and contents of this compulsory training, which can only be delivered by qualified trainers.
Duration of the courses varies according to the risk class of your business, which you can find out through the ATECO Code of your business:
- low risk: 8 hours;
- medium risk: 12 hours;
- high risk: 16 hours.
Therefore, all your personnel must hold a certificate showing they received the training before being hired or at the latest within 60 days after being hired (in this case you will have to provide reasons for the delay).
Workers with specific safety duties must also take additional targeted training lasting 8 hours.
Managers must only take a 16-hour course, and can do this in e-learning mode.
Specific requirements apply to workers handling/driving the following equipment:
- Mobile elevating work platforms (MEWP);
- tower cranes, mobile cranes;
- loader cranes;
- forklift trucks with driver;
- farm and forestry tractors;
- earth moving machinery;
- concrete pumps.
These workers must hold a training certificate issued by qualified trainers.
After initial training, all workers must receive refresher training every 5 years.
Foreign workers
A growing proportion of the workforce is made up of foreigners. So far, they have received little specific support to facilitate their integration into the workplace, especially with regard to their understanding of written and spoken Italian.
Verifying their mastery of the language is particularly important with regard to workplace safety, i.e. to the set of rules and behaviours to be followed to ensure the safety of self and others.
Proper communication between workers is a key element for ensuring workplace safety; another aspect to be considered is cultural differences in non-verbal communication and the need to fight misconceptions in multicultural environments.
A useful tool for assessing the degree of mastery of the Italian language has been developed by the Prevention Department of Local Health Authority No 20 in Verona.
On its part, INAIL has published a series of basic manuals in the languages most spoken by foreign workers in Italy.
Test to verify foreign workers’ proficiency in the Italian language
The test is easy to administer and is arranged into four levels of language proficiency, from “basic knowledge” to “autonomous”, above which the worker can be considered to be “independent” in the further learning of the language.
Workers who score below the “autonomous” level in the test must be considered still in need of support to reach the level of independent comprehension. The assessment must also take into consideration the level of danger involved in each worker's duties.
INAIL manuals for foreign workers
This section has downloadable manuals which are useful tools to help employers comply with their obligation to provide their workers with basic information on workplace health and safety: rules, staff with prevention duties, the allocation of tasks and responsibilities, the concept of risk and prevention.