How work in the factory changes when the temperatures are scorching in the departments

The heat emergency changes the organization of work and times. While there is talk of laws and regulations that take effect automatically as soon as the mercury column exceeds a certain threshold of degrees, in some companies we have already moved on to the facts. A transformation that has started in recent days thanks to agreements with the trade union organizations which, handbook in hand, have asked to make the effects of the heat in the factory less heavy. Examples abound. Like the agreement reached in two Marelli plants, one in Sulmona, in Abruzzo, where they make suspension systems, and the other in Venaria Reale, in the Turin hinterland, where they build exhaust systems for cars. Agreements arrived after the protests of Fim, Fiom and Uilm and the workers. The unions have managed to add three to four breaks of a quarter of an hour or twelve minutes along the day’s shifts depending on the department, whether it’s assembly or logistics. Not only. On 25 July there will be a new meeting between the company and the unions to verify that the additional stops are sufficient to make the situation less difficult, also verifying the trend in climatic conditions. In Melano, near Fabriano, where the hobs for the kitchens are manufactured in the Whirlpool factory, a measure implemented for Covid and exchanged on the heat emergency was dusted off for the heat: an additional 7-minute break when 31 degrees was reached. “It was foreseen in the Covid protocol – explain the trade union organizations – but we are managing to keep it”.

Faiveley Transport of Piossasco, in the province of Turin, which is part of the French group Wabtec and where components for railway convoys are made, was granted a doubling of the physiological break. Cold water dispensers and distributors of supplements and mineral salts were then installed in the wards. Similar measures will also be taken for the company’s shipyard employees who work for customers, starting with Trenitalia. Break changes at the Fucine Rostagno factories in Cuorgné and Forno Canavese, in the province of Turin, where laminates are made. Breaks have been rescheduled so that you work for 45 minutes and stop for 15 minutes. At Bersano Carlo di Fusano, where hot stamping is done, people work for 40 minutes and the stop has risen to 20 minutes during shifts.

A few days ago Stellantis had independently decided to send the employees of the Fiat Panda line home to the Pomigliano d’Arco plant. Temperatures too high, impossible to continue working. The car manufacturer then intervened in all the sites, keeping the air conditioning systems in operation even outside work shifts. In addition, comfort items were distributed in Pomigliano, starting with water, as well as supplements. Even in the Iveco production sites throughout Italy – say the unions – cooling has been strengthened, even with nebulizers, and water has been distributed.

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“In large companies – explain the representatives of Fim, Fiom and Uilm – these interventions can be carried out when the heat emergency breaks out. The problem is that they don’t happen automatically, as in other European countries, to improve working conditions. There must always be the case for popping out the nebulizers, distributing water and mineral salts. It should be avoided that factories suffer from the cold in winter and the heat in summer without reaching an emergency. In small and medium-sized businesses, especially where there is no union, the problem is even more acute. Employers don’t always understand the risks. For this reason, legislation would be useful”.