On 21 December 2021, Law no. 215/2021 (conversion of Legislative Decree 164/2021) “containing urgent measures in economic and fiscal matters, to protect work” came into force, with the aim of increasing safety control and improving the prevention system.
In particular, the Legislator intervened on the figure of the person in charge (who is the person in charge) and in detail on Articles. 18 and 19 of Legislative Decree no. 81/08 to specify the functions attributed to it, thus assuming a central role in the context of corporate safety management alongside that of the Employer and Manager.
What are the new obligations of the supervisor?
Following Law no. 215/2021, the person in charge has the obligation to intervene if he detects “conduct that does not comply with the provisions and instructions given by the Employer and the Managers for the purposes of collective and individual protection“.
For this reason, if it detects behavior on the part of workers that does not comply with company safety provisions, it can “intervene to modify non-compliant behavior by providing the necessary safety indications”. In addition, he will be able to interrupt the worker’s activity, informing his direct superiors “in case of failure to implement the instructions given“.
In addition, it will have the obligation to interrupt the work activity, reporting to the Employer and the Manager, if it detects anomalies “of the means and work equipment and of any dangerous condition detected during the supervision“.
Is the Employer obliged to appoint a supervisor?
Law no. 215/2021 introduces art. 18 of Legislative Decree 81/08 the obligation on the part of the Employer and the Manager “to identify the person in charge or persons in charge of carrying out the supervisory activities referred to in Article 19“.
In addition, the law gives greater importance to his figure as it establishes that in the case of “activities under contract and subcontracting, employers contractors or subcontractors must expressly indicate to the employer the client the personnel who perform the function of supervisor“.
In this way, the Employer will have to cooperate for the management of company safety, always identifying the figure of the person in charge.
New rights and duties of the supervisor
The new law recognizes greater importance to the role also at the economic level, in fact Law no. 215/2021 provides that “contracts and collective labor agreements can establish the remuneration due to the person in charge for carrying out the activities referred to in the previous period“.
Therefore, the position of supervisor will be adequately remunerated according to the sector to which he belongs and to the collective labour agreements. For this reason, we will have to wait for the renewal of the collective labour agreements that will establish remuneration.
In addition, “the person in charge cannot suffer any prejudice due to the performance of his activity“, so the legislator has opted for greater protection of the role.
In addition, it established that failure to update the person in charge every two years will be sanctioned to the Employer and Manager through arrest from two to four months with a fine from 1,474.21 to 6,388.23 euros.
Instead, the person in charge who does not fulfill his obligations will be sanctioned “with arrest up to two months or with a fine of 400 to 1,200 euros“.
Supervisor course update how often?
Another important innovation introduced concerns refresher courses, in fact the rule establishes that they must be provided exclusively and “entirely in presence” and must be repeated “at least every two years“.
The modalities, duration and minimum contents of the training have yet to be established as the standard refers to an update of the State-Regions agreements that must be issued by 30 June 2022.
Since the rule is already in force, if the State-Regions Agreement is not issued by this date, the updating of face-to-face and biennial training is considered already valid.
Who can form the supervisor?
The current legislation obliges the training of the persons in charge in presence and no longer in mixed mode (e-learning and in presence).