Inapp: “Quality of work: in Italy one worker out of four believes their health is at risk”

The quality of the work? Italy is half promoted. Good companies and workers in the Center and North, back South, workers and young people. This is the result of the analyzes of the researchers of the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies (INAPP) on companies and workers which places our country in a sort of ‘middle ground’ among those where the quality of work is higher , such as the Scandinavian countries but also Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Eastern European countries which are at the bottom of the ranking especially for poor protection in the labor market and working environment (OECD). In particular, 24% of our workers perceive their health at risk in the workplace, this aspect is more worrying in the South (28%) and among civil servants (30%). Furthermore, more than a third of workers (37%) declare that they have no flexibility with respect to working hours, this aspect is even more marked among women (42%) especially if employed in the public sector (50%). A further critical element highlighted by our workers concerns stagnation in professional careers, which involves 69% of employed people and has even higher values ​​among civil servants and young people aged 18-34 (73%). To all this is added a growing routinization of work activities, which particularly concerns workers in the South, where 71% of employed people declare that they carry out mainly repetitive activities and those employed in very small production realities (1-5 workers) ( 68%).

These are some of the data contained in the 5th INAPP survey on the “Quality of work” which involved over 15,000 employees (over 17 years of age) and 5,000 businesses nationwide. The research introduced by the president, prof. Sebastiano Fadda was presented this morning in Rome during a study day at the Institute’s Auditorium and was attended, among others, by Romolo de Camillis, Director General of Labor Relations and Industrial Relations of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, Tania Scacchetti, confederal secretariat for labor market policies and inclusive bargaining of the CGIL, Giulio Romani, confederal secretary for labor market policies, vocational training, employment services of the CISL, Ivana Veronese, confederal secretariat for active policies and liabilities of labour, training, education and skills of the UIL, Pierangelo Albini, director of the labour, welfare and human capital area of ​​Confindustria, Guido Lazzarelli, head of the labour, bargaining and trade union relations sector of Confcommercio and Antonio Zampiga, head of the sector labor and industrial relations Legacoop.

“The results of the survey demonstrate that companies that have focused on innovation, organizational change and good management of human resources have managed to build a ‘virtuous fortress’ capable of withstanding shocks and generating a high quality of work – he explained the president of INAPP – In fact, it is the companies capable of combining sharing and participation in activities, high organizational flexibility, a propensity for smart working and a strong orientation towards innovation and change, which have paid less for the recent health crisis: only 11% of them declare that they have suffered strong negative effects from the crisis due to the Covid emergency, compared to a national average incidence almost double (21%). The “traditional” companies, on the other hand, are those that have suffered the greatest effects”.

To increase the quality of work, analyzes indicate that it is necessary to improve the management of human resources and focus on innovation. Those who have done so, we are talking about 8% of Italian companies, have seen their competitiveness in the markets increase and at the same time the quality of work for their employees. These are the “smart” (intelligent) companies as renamed by INAPP. Companies that are also characterized by a broad participation both in the planning of activities (54.1% of cases), and in the discussion of organizational changes (73.6%) and attention to the issue of life work balance (81% of companies consider the work-life balance to be the responsibility of the company). For these companies, the quality of work is not a cost, rather a driving force. Among the “smart” companies, the introduction of changes and innovations has generated an increase in productivity in 85% of cases and in 78% of turnover, but also, in about 70% of cases, an increase in both well-being and motivation of the workers. Furthermore, in these companies the workers have greater job stability (in 91% of them there are no fixed-term workers, and in 78% of cases precariousness leads to subsequent stabilization).

In addition to the smart ones, three other categories of companies emerge from the INAPP study: the “quality traditional” ones (50% of Italian companies) with a high number of permanent workers, a low propensity for smart working and a fair level of innovation; the “hybrid” characterized by a high level of fixed-term workers and a low propensity for smart working of the activities (20% of Italian companies) and, finally, the “resilient” both in terms of human resource management and innovation (16% of Italian companies).