Risk management is the process of identifying, analysing, accepting, mitigating or transferring uncertainty in investment decisions. Fund managers apply risk management by analysing and attempting to quantify the potential loss of an investment and then acting accordingly.

It is widely recognized that a procurement policy, which considers the safety culture of a contractor can significantly impact on the occupational health and safety (OHS) level of a workplace.

National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Inail), the Italian Institute who runs the insurance against accidents at work, has supported the adoption of Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OSH MS) in Italian companies since 2001. In order to verify if support to OH&S MS and the relevant use of public funds brings social benefits, Inail regularly monitors the efficacy of its policies calculating the difference between the injury index in a certified company with the rest of Italian companies.

In 2014 the National Institute for Insurance against Accident at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – Inail) of Italy, was assigned new specific tasks regarding work reintegration of people with job related disabilities. The resulting regulatory framework allows it to finance up to a maximum of 150,000 euros (EUR) for each worker, aimed at supporting work reintegration projects in three areas:

Work-related stress risk constitutes one of the main challenges that companies face in protecting workers’ health and safety and increasing their competitiveness. Scientific evidence has highlighted that the impact of work-related stress risk affects some productive sectors more than others, including the health care sector.

Institutions are being transformed thanks to the integration of new technologies. This vision represents a corporate change with a social impact, reducing costs, simplifying processes and procedures, and raising awareness of the importance and benefits of this transformation.

Article 12 of Law No. 5508 on the Promotion, Protection of Maternity and Support for Breastfeeding establishes that maternity allowance should be paid to employed women by the social security scheme of Paraguay’s Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS). This amount is equivalent to 100 per cent of her salary at the time of delivery, and is paid for the prescribed months of rest. This used to be given to women in a single payment.

Sport without barriers is a series of video stories featuring the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – Inail) of Italy, assisting people with disabilities caused by accidents at work. Each of them tells firsthand in simple and engaging language how the person managed to rebuild her life after an accident at work, thanks to his passion for sport and with the support of the Institute.

The issue of population growth and social security planning is one of the biggest challenges facing governments today, and is a key part of a good social security system that instils confidence in its members.

The Retirement and Pension Fund for Employees of Banks and Related Institutions (Caja de Jubilaciones y Pensiones de Empleados de Bancos y Afines) (Bank Fund, hereinafter) is in constant communication with its members. It therefore continuously updates its databases, in order to have a better understanding of members’ current realities, experiences and needs.

Digital transformation is happening in institutions through the integration of new technologies. This vision represents an institutional and social change, optimizing available resources, reducing costs, shortening processes and procedures, and raising awareness of the importance and benefits of this transformation.

Recent years have seen an exponential growth in the application of cutting-edge biotechnological techniques in a variety of research fields, such as human health, agriculture and industry. Such rapid success brings challenges related to the protection of human health and the environment. Therefore, it is important to provide up-to-date information on the national regulations, educate to laboratory practices with genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs), create awareness and motivate for biosafety.

Good practice in health – service quality.

As health-care systems have evolved to become more complex and due to the resultant increase in patients coming to harm in health care settings, patient safety has emerged as a health-care discipline.

The Actuarial Advisory Office (Asesoría Actuarial) of the Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS) carried out an actuarial valuation of the Common Retirement and Pension Fund (Fondo Común de Jubilaciones y Pensiones). The valuation looks to comply with international best practices and observe the guidelines and standards of the International Standards of Actuarial Practice 2 (ISAP 2), and the ISSA-ILO Guidelines on Actuarial Work for Social Security, with technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Over the years, the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) has expanded the protection of workers, guaranteeing economic and health benefits and social-health and supplementary services as forms of support aimed at recovery, psycho-physical rehabilitation and reintegration into social and working life.

Like most of the world’s countries, Paraguay has adopted lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These steps taken by the government have impacted the productive sector, leading to mass suspensions of employment contracts for persons insured with the Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS) of Paraguay.

During the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, in Italy as in other countries, the government has promoted work from home. The National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) Technical Consultancy for risk assessment and prevention (CONTARP) wrote an information document on the risks workers could be exposed in different working scenarios (open air working, working on public transport or in closed public or private places) that provided recommendations and prevention measures.

Osseointegration for lower limb amputees represents an innovative approach that allows a direct bone-prosthesis connection, avoiding the use of traditional sockets. Thanks to its demonstrated improvement effects on patient prosthesis embodiment and quality of life, osseointegrated implants are a reliable alternative to the traditional solutions.

Paraguay’s Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión de Social – IPS) used to make sick leave payments at its administrative offices, which had associated administrative costs and meant beneficiaries had to visit the IPS service counter in person.

Lower-limb amputee (LLA) patients are required to prove their ability to use the artificial limb through functional evaluations. The results guide the prosthesis-rehabilitation treatment. Patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) allow getting information on the patient’s ability based on the patient’s perspective. The approach may have a huge impact on decision-making processes because it may help clinicians to develop patient-specific treatments.

Organizations with a positive safety culture have internal communication based on mutual trust, shared perceptions on the importance of safety and trust in prevention measures. As a consequence, organizations with a high level of safety culture are able to significantly reduce the occurrence of accidents and occupational diseases.

The adverse health effects of occupational exposure to crystalline silica have long been known. Silicosis can be considered a generalised systemic disease that originates in the lung and often affects other systems and organs.

Management systems for occupational health and safety are a fundamental element of prevention. Currently, these models of managing are designed for large, complex or articulated organizations.

Differently the first version of Inail-Cobis Operational Guide SGSL Sistema Casa – 2018, rewarded by ISSA Good Practice Awards – Europe 2019, showed the feasibility of occupational health and safety management system (OSH MS) models tailored for small building and utility companies.

Integration of the materials for information and training on occupational prevention and safety, already owned by the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL), with specific products coming from the territory and companies of South Tyrol.

“Studiare il Lavoro” is a specific e-learning training project realized by the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) for students between 15 and 18 years old. It has been designed and implemented using an innovative teaching method using animated graphics and advanced techniques of communication to keep the right level of attention.

AERMeS is a software toolkit created for professionals working in the field of occupational safety and health to equip them with a tool that guides them in selecting the most appropriate method for measuring the risks for the musculoskeletal apparatus and obtaining highly reliable assessments, also using observational assessment methods. In fact, by improving the quality of the assessments it is possible to identify the risk factors with greater accuracy and to identify the most appropriate measures to protect workers’ health.

Support Incentives to Enterprises bids (Incentivi di Sostegno alle Imprese, ISI), annually published by the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL), allow collecting large amounts of information on companies that access contributions for preventive purposes. Every year about 4,000 companies in the Italian territory start a bureaucratic path that allows them to get INAIL financial incentives.

The introduction of the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe and to remodel the way organizations manage data of European citizens, shows expected characteristics for personal data (Articles 5 and 32). However, it does not identify any rules regarding the data model and the metrics to adopt to ensure compliance with these characteristics (accuracy, current affairs, integrity, confidentiality, availability, resilience, etc.).

On the subject of insurance against accidents at work and occupational diseases, Italian legislation (Law 144/1999; Legislative Decree 38/2000) provides suitable coverage for biological damage and impairments of psycho-physical integrity between 6 per cent to 15 per cent. A one-off lump sum indemnity is provided, independent of the salary of the injured person, increasing with the severity of impairment and variable according to age and gender of the injured person.

In 2010, the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) adopted a system of incentives for companies that invest in safety at work. Through the Support Incentives to Enterprises (Incentivi di Sostegno alle Imprese – ISI), companies that invest in projects to improve health and safety in the workplace are supported with non-repayable loans provided by INAIL on a regional basis.

Despite specific legislation and efforts of institutions and trade unions to improve health and safety conditions, construction is still one of the sectors where the frequency of injuries is the highest.

The good practice Remediation of asbestos cement roofing (ACR) aims to provide a tool for the right management and disposal of ACR to those who operate in this sector.

The good practice Remediation of friable asbestos containing material (ACM-F) aims to provide a tool for the right management and disposal of ACM-F to those who operate in this sector.

The consultancy CONTARP (Consulenza Tecnica Accertamenti Rischi e Prevenzione) of the National National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL), the Regional Directorate for Campania in collaboration with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the Federico II University of Naples has set up a research group that developed and implemented a good practice in the field of Safety 4.0, called A&IOH (Augmented & Interactive Aid for Occupational Hazards).

India has a federal structure of governance, where health is a provincial subject and social security and labour are in the concurrent list. Healthcare and cash compensation for employment injury in the formal sector are provided by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) while the pension and provident fund are provided by the Employees Provident Fund. The employees of factories and establishments in the formal sector are entitled to social security benefits through the ESIC scheme.

The National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) Regional Directorate for Campania has co-financed research that led to the creation of tools for the prevention of fire safety risks in the workplace, deriving from the energy retrofitting of buildings.

Because of the lack of standardisation of repetitive manual activities, it is very important to share criteria to make the risk assessment homogeneous, focusing on the following critical elements: use of tools, identification of technical actions, force, posture and cycle time.

Over recent years, the constant evolution of mortality has made it necessary, for insurance and social security institutions, to monitor constantly these developments.

Our study focuses on disabled people, specifically workers insured by the National Institute of Employment Accident Insurance (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL), who suffered an accident at work or contracted an occupational disease and receive a life annuity.

Occupational safety and health management systems (OSH-MS) are a fundamental element of prevention. Considering the demonstrated effectiveness, the implementation of such systems in small-sized companies is considered beneficial, as it would cover a substantial number of workers involved. Currently these systems are designed for medium/large organizations and are well suited to structured work situations.

The project, which integrates the dissemination of knowledge, communication and emotional involvement, is aimed at promoting the culture of prevention through the creation of a dynamic path, dedicated to high school students and related to the main risks of health and safety in living and working environments, as addressed in Legislative Decree 81/2008.

Between November 2015 and December 2017, an experimental training project was developed by the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) for social and health care workers who work in facilities for the reception and care of self-sufficient people and dependents with varying degrees of disability.

The extension of the ESI scheme was not progressing at the desired pace. In 2010 the threshold coverage level was reduced from 20 to 10 employees through an amendment to the Act. Moreover, in sparsely populated areas many establishments could not be covered even with the threshold of 10 employees.

In rehabilitation, achieving mobility in autonomy is a major target. In case of a gait deficit, the manual wheelchair is the ultimate tool for achieving this target: it is a key device in the world of assistive technology (AT) and its use helps to increase the chances of the person with a disability, his/her independence and participation in the activities of daily living. To make best use of the device a training programme is needed. The person has to learn a new kind of locomotion: he/she must learn to make transfers to and from the wheelchair, how to face stairs and inclines.

State Governments are instrumental in delivering healthcare services under the ESI Act. An enabling provision was inserted in the Act to establish a body at the State level to address certain operational issues.

A committee, entitled Medical Services and Medical Education (MSME), was constituted to explore various options to improve operational efficiency.

The Employees  Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India provides social security benefits to its members in terms of provident fund and old age pensions under the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (referred to as the Act hereafter), enacted by the Parliament of India, which extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The project SA.SI.A is based on the integration of technology into the current security procedures in the corporate sector industry. It starts from the experience of Si.S.Ca. "Active safety on construction sites.", validated as a good practice by the Ministry of Labour in 2013 and awarded a recognition in the ISSA Good Practice Award competition for Europe in 2013. The platform SA.SI.A allows real-time monitoring over all working areas with special attention to the following risks:
 

The inefficiency and complexity of various processes involving a multitude of forms and returns and the resulting difficulty in delivery of online services to over 60 million contributory subscribers and over 200 million accounts, was a big challenge for the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) of India since some time back. The sheer size of stakeholders heightened the need of digitization.

To ensure adequacy and improve the quality of social security benefits the following actions have been taken:
 

Therefore this tool will encourage the management of organizations, especially small and medium sized enterprises, to allocate resources in OHS prevention. The costs of the lack of safety in Italian enterprises are very high (some 47 billion euros), a big part of these costs are paid by firms. Therefore some organizations do not know the real costs behind accidents and ill-health that they have to bear in terms of loss of work time and money. This is especially true for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) where the culture of safety is not so deeply understood.

The ESIC has taken the following measures to proactively improve the scheme:
 

The CONTARP (Consulenza Tecnica Accertamenti Rischi e Prevenzione) of the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro – INAIL) Regional Directorate of Campania, in partnership with Laboratory of Applied and Experimental Ergonomics (LEAS) of the University of Naples Federico II, set up a research group that lead to the realization of tools for the analysis and evaluation of architectural risks (meaning risks that can already be prevented in the design and planning phase of a construction project),

The project (Sistema di Sicurezza Cantiere edile (SISCA)) uses RTLS technologies to control and evaluate safety levels in construction sites. This approach is based on the use of particular indicators or control parameters, measured during work activities. This method uses a "hardware-software" platform implying the following four evaluation parameters:

The moments immediately after an accident represent a delicate step, as the worker needs to obtain urgently information on how to handle it.

Today, with the project "InailOnLine", this caring, advising and supporting service is carried out in a "proactive" way, with an outbound service, as the worker is directly contacted not later than 48 hours after the accident.

Through a Contact Centre, the injured worker first gets information by telephone and useful documentation by e-mail.

The practice was intended to develop procedures for the assessment of occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environments, and to identify a biomarker of possible health effects of long-term exposure to such physical agent.

Biological risk assessment at workplaces is not easy because of the lack of a standard for biocontaminants measurement. INAIL's Technical Advisory Risk Assessment and Prevention (CONTARP) developed guidelines on microbiological monitoring in workplaces, in order to adopt homogeneous methodologies of airborne biocontaminants sampling and samples analysis. CONTARP and DCOD (Directorate for Digital Organization) developed a software programme, whose database contains data about environmental microbiological monitoring in companies.

While integration is desirable, flexible arrangements are required depending on the size and type of operation. It reflects ILO values such as tripartism and relevant international standards including the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No.155) and the Occupational Health Services Convention, 1985 (No. 161).

• The minimum amount of monthly dependants' benefit payable to dependants of a deceased insured person has been prescribed as 1,200 Indian Rupees (INR) a month.
• Long-term benefits (permanent disablement benefit and dependant's benefit) have been linked to the cost of living index.

This good practice deals with a statistical methodology in computer science to measure the workers welfare inside a company. We consider the company as a micro-society where wellness depends on both internal organizational factors and external factors related to work. We consider the working wellness as a multidimensional entity which can be interpreted through a set of indicators explored by the O.H.Q. (Organizational Health Questionnaire, 2002) questionnaire. A relational database and the SQL query language ensure portability and independence of the solution.

In National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL)) the system for measuring users' satisfaction is structured into two distinct and integrated tools:

The new system, now in its third edition with the notice published in December 2012, foresees the co-funding by INAIL, up to 50 per cent, of investments made by companies for structural interventions (e.g. factory renovations, buying machinery) or adoption of organizational models of safety management or social responsibility, aimed at improving health and safety levels, beyond the ones prescribed by law.

ICT has been used to improve compliance, and to implement on-line registration of employers and employees, and make benefit payments.
Forms and the procedure for benefit rate calculations have been simplified.

The new systems and procedures resulted in savings of about 25 per cent of Branch Office staff which could be utilized in other information and communication technology (ICT) related work during its transition phase.

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) undertook a number of actions which led to the following measures being introduced to extend coverage:

All companies must comply with health and safety regulations. However, the safety procedures and the spread of information about the subject are not sufficient to avoid accidents. It is really useful for companies to create a network and cooperate actively to improve safety.

ESAW (European Statistics on Accidents at Work) is the European coding system of injuries, adopted by Inail since 2001, allowing the comparison of accidents at work rates in different Member States. The knowledge of causes and circumstances of the occurrence of accidents at work is essential for planning policies for prevention and protection aimed at reducing their frequency and severity, as well as enabling the plan of measures to improve working conditions.

The recent experience at the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL)) is to seek irregularities and frauds related to the same economic entity that closes one business and reopens it with a different shape (company name, attributes, employees, etc.). This frequent behavior of entrepreneurs contributes to fraud and other irregularities.

The National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL)) - also to overcome the lack of financial and human resources - is committed to fighting contribution evasion and to improving inspection results in social security matters by computerizing the surveillance system and developing business intelligence activities.

The implemented path has allowed the realization of working flows that create value by producing satisfactory outputs for users and the Institute; and the determination in every organizational unit its strength points to share, other areas for improvement, and the consequent planning and implementation of plans.

INAIL, Campania Regional Directorate has funded a series of research which led to the delivery of the software suite ERA.

The Italian Silica Network (NIS), of which INAIL is a founding member, along with other public bodies and associations, has launched a research project to assess silica risk in the following sectors: construction, foundry, stone, construction of tunnels and the manufacture of ceramic tiles. The primary goal was to create a shared "repository" of the more effective technical and organizational choices to mitigate the silica risk.

More than 300 million euro (EUR) were allocated to financially support companies to invest in safety, in order to make their facilities and organization compliant with the law and implement training/information activities.

The incentives financed:

The keystone of the new approach is the creation of a unique Multi-Channel Virtual Front Office for both Institutions with a multi-level operational model that integrates Front End and Back Office. It includes the innovation of their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) into a single shared Contact Centre (CC).

Other institutions will probably be involved in the near future in the integrated Contact Centre. It will mean a further extension of the offered services and a merged front office of the social security institutions involved.

Since 2000, companies that carry out activities aimed at improving health and safety are rewarded with a premium reduction paid to the National Employment Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL)).

The rate reduction is granted as follows:

• various tools to use autonomously at a local level;
• a "taskforce" with high skills to provide support with the use of the methodology, and to intervene "on demand" on the basis of assessments by the National Social Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (INPS)) branches and/or survey outcomes; and
• a web 2.0 IT network which could link the various "process actors" allowing the realization of "the continuous improvement good practices database" and a virtual community targeted to innovation.

Standardized process flows were determined for every institutional product of the National Social Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (INPS)). The work flows simplified and streamlined the sequence of necessary actions to produce every INPS product or service, by defining in a single layout and flow all the administrative information and management IT procedures necessary to support the production.

The main benefit for the interested user is to solve his INPS problem with a simple call or email without moving from home.

Another challenge was to offer INPS disabled personnel an opportunity for professional and skills growth and to further develop their experience and sensitivity to disability problems by involving them in the project activities.