The figures of guarantee within the company
The issue of health and safety protection in the workplace is very important and involves all the workers employed in the company in different ways and responsibilities.
Article 2 of Legislative Decree 81/2008 identifies the subjects involved in this task, which the doctrine defines as guarantee figures.
Within the company, the structure of the guarantors finds at its top the employer, below which are the manager, the person in charge and the worker.
- The employer is the one who is the holder of the employment relationship or is the one who is responsible for the organization of the work activity and exercises decision-making and spending powers. This definition allows you to identify the employer in anyone who organizes activities, manages and decides how to spend business finances. In essence, it is considered an employer who concretely has the possibility to control and prevent harmful events. In this way, the law avoids situations in which a person, not formally invested with the status of employer, but who actually performs these tasks, can be considered exempt from liability.
- The manager is the person who, by reason of professional skills, hierarchical position and functional powers, implements the directives of the employer, organizing and supervising the work activity.
- The person in charge, on the other hand, supervises the work of workers, guarantees and controls the correct implementation of safety directives. In particular, it shall ensure that only workers who have received appropriate instructions enter areas which expose them to a serious and specific risk; requires compliance with measures to control risk situations in the event of an emergency and instructs workers to leave their workplace or danger zone; inform as soon as possible of the nature and characteristics of the risks to which workers are exposed and shall inform the employer or manager of defects in the means and equipment and of any other dangerous condition occurring during work.
Within the company organization chart often corresponds to the department head, the office manager, etc.
- The worker is any person who carries out a work activity within the employer’s organization. For the recognition of this title, the type of contract or the presence or absence of a salary is not important, but it is sufficient that the person carries out a work activity in an organized context. This definition guarantees protection to all those involved in the company, including volunteers or undeclared workers.
Every worker must therefore take care of his own health and safety and that of other people in the workplace. In particular, it must contribute to the fulfillment of the obligations envisaged to protect health and safety in the workplace; observe the instructions and instructions given by the employer, managers and supervisors; use work equipment and safety devices correctly; immediately report to superiors any dangerous condition of which he becomes aware, working directly, in case of urgency, to eliminate or reduce situations of serious and imminent danger; not to remove or modify safety, signalling or control devices without authorisation and not to carry out on one’s own initiative operations or manoeuvres that are not within one’s competence. Finally, the worker must participate in the training courses organized by the employer and undergo the necessary health checks.
The system of figures of guarantees in the field of health and safety at work, then, is completed with complementary figures, which fully achieve the objective of effective and effective interventions. These are: the Head of the Prevention and Protection Service (RSPP), which identifies the risks present in the workplace, the Worker Safety Representative (RLS) with the function of representing workers in the field of health and safety at work and the competent doctor (MC), responsible for carrying out health surveillance in the company.