The emergency of heat is faced with an integrated management, through the alteration of organizational models capable of facing future crises arising from climate change. This is the approach taken by the Minister of Labor, Marina Calderone, at the table with the Ministry of Health, Inl, Inps, Inail and employer and union associations on measures to protect workers exposed to the record temperatures that hit Italy in the last week. The ministry opened the possibility of working on a joint protocol with the social partners, to address “issues of work organization, measures and good practices to adopt to combat the heat emergency, with the provision of ad hoc PPE and heat-resistant supports”, said Calderone. To facilitate this hypothesis, the minister would be willing to put a ministerial ordinance on the table that would speed up the communication procedures. But CGIL and UIL urge: “There is no time”. And they are asking for a decree to stop activities above 33 degrees.
The companies are against it, wanting to avoid “suspensions from above” and asking for measures tailored to the specific needs of each sector. Meanwhile, Calderone called the parties to a second round on Monday, July 24th. Also on the table is the possibility of using the Cigo in case of excessive heat. From the minister came the will to evaluate some regulatory interventions, such as the hourly management of ordinary cash in all sectors. According to sources present at the meeting, the minister would also have put on the table the possibility of resorting to smart working. At the moment, however, there is no regulatory ‘vehicle’ in which to insert this intervention, Calderone would have explained, although it does not seem to have completely closed the door to the hypothesis, possibly foreseen with a legislative decree.
Unions are divided over the protocol. On the one hand, the CGIL and the UIL, which press for more incisive and, above all, immediate interventions. “There is no time, the situation is dramatically urgent: an immediate decree is needed to stop activities where temperatures exceed 32/33 degrees”, says via Lucullo, while Corso d’Italia asks that the Cigo be “immediately usable and interventions must be immediately effective, just as the interruption of activities must be binding when the conditions are not met, otherwise the emergency will not be faced”. On the other hand, the CISL, which welcomes the idea of the protocol, to give “space to all the useful tools for the protection of workers exposed to exceptional heat waves that require a structural response”. The Ugl is also convinced: “The hypothesis of reaching a protocol shared with the employers’ associations that establishes points on the management of climate emergencies is good”. A warning comes from companies: interventions for regulatory simplifications in the ordinary redundancy fund and in the organization to deal with hot sos “must be calibrated to the types of activities in the various sectors and the tasks performed, as it is clear that there are different impacts”, writes Confcommercio in a note. No “suspensions ‘from above’ of activities”, therefore, because, especially in the tertiary sector, “paradoxically, one can move from the fund for rescissions due to climatic events to the fund for rescissions due to cessation of activity”, warns the confederation.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.