On April 18th, the conference entitled “Safety at work in the province of Varese: accidents and best practices” was held at the headquarters of the Varese Chamber of Commerce.
The initiative – an opportunity to take stock of the current situation and to share significant best practices in the area – was promoted by this Prefecture with the Chamber of Commerce and other public offices and bodies, employers’ associations and trade union organisations, within the “Varese Provincial Workplace Safety Network”.
During the conference, the accident data for the four-year period 2018-2022 was illustrated by the Chamber of Commerce and INAIL. The data in detail can be viewed at the following link: https://www.angola-varese.it/gli-infortuni-sul-lavoro-in-provincia-di-varese-dal-2018-al-2022
In the introduction, all those present underlined how, even if there is a lot of talk about digital transition and artificial intelligence, the human dimension must absolutely not be forgotten and how the objective to be achieved must be to reduce the number of accidents, to the point of zeroing especially the mortal ones.
The chosen observation period, although still influenced by the Covid19 phenomenon, allows us to re-parameterise the events through the comparison of the individual years 2018 and 2022 which are little influenced by the numbers of the pandemic.
The trend of injuries reported in the province of Varese follows quite faithfully the trend of reports in Lombardy, except for the year 2020, conditioned by the strong impact of the pandemic on this area. In the last year, workplace accidents reported in this province essentially equaled the pre-emergency values (+2.2%), while in Lombardy there was a growth in reports compared to 2019 (+10%); an increase which can also be seen in the national data (+9.2%), from 644,550 complaints in 2019 to 703,569 in 2022.
In 2022, accidents positively defined in Industry and Services management amounted to 5,824; The male gender was predominantly affected with 3,877 injuries (64.4%) while female injuries were 2,074 (36.6%).
Comparing the percentage incidence by gender with the 2018 data, we note an increase in the share of women among the injured (35.6% vs 31%) which may be linked to a progressive expansion of the number of working women but also, in part relating to the sectors, is due to a greater weight of accidents occurring in the healthcare sector, where many women work, in 2022: 20.4%, in 2018: 11.4%.
In the year 2022 it can be seen that the age groups most affected by accidents are those central to the working age, i.e. between 30 and 44 years (30%) and from 45 to 59 years (42.5%). These age groups are those most present in the workforce employed in this province.
The nationality of the injured is primarily Italian (79.7%), followed by non-European nationality (17.6%) and finally European nationality (2.7%).
At the center of the morning, in addition to the data, the “best practices” were also presented, i.e. the good practices that some local companies are experimenting with to try to prevent accidents at work.
Among the testimonies, that of Alessandro Cattaneo, health safety and environment manager of Leonardo’s Helicopters division, who spoke about HSE Alerts, a system that allows communications to be shared between all the division’s plants as well as to analyze events such as: accidents, near accidents, injuries, medications, dangerous actions or situations. The corrective actions adopted following each event can be re-proposed for similar situations in other sites with the aim of preventing future unwanted events.
Another best practice was presented by Bticino, an Italian metalworking company founded in 1936 in Varese belonging to the French Legrand group. Totems have been installed within the company which transmit safety information to workers. Through them, employees can report potentially dangerous situations.
BetonCablo of Busto Arsizio, although not a construction company, has decided to introduce the “points-based license” for those responsible for safety in the company. In essence, we start from an initial budget of points which can be deducted, depending on any non-conformities found. Potentially, the irregularities found could also result in the loss of the euros expected for these figures on their pay slips.
In addition to these practices, the head of the workplace safety area of Confindustria of Varese has announced that the experience of “training breaks” will continue. The idea, in contrast to the “river” courses on safety, involves the creation of small groups that meet for fifteen minutes in the department to address a single topic at a time. The system should make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the message to be conveyed.
During the conference, the awards program for the competition announced – by the Permanent Workplace Safety Table of the Province of Varese – entitled “Poster competition for safety in the workplace” aimed at primary and lower secondary schools was also presented. with the aim of raising awareness among the little ones on this important issue.
The detailed digital proposal was as follows: Digital infographics/posters with Canva; Poster with content augmented with Genially; Augmented reality poster (reserved for lower secondary schools) with specific software
The award ceremony for the work will take place on May 7th at the Falcone institute in Gallarate (VA)
This is the second year that schools have been involved. This competition entitled: “Safety at work – A Logo Competition” was also announced by the Permanent Workplace Safety Committee of the Province of Varese, as the final project of a series of initiatives aimed at raising awareness among children, starting from primary schools. , to the topic.
