04.2 Occupational health and
safety
Artemide began working on safeguarding its employees and
collaborators from the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020 with
the introduction of safety measures for its Asian facilities, which
resulted in the definition of the #staysafe project. Through
a process of continuous education and training aimed at the
employees of its facilities worldwide, the Group implemented
advanced prevention and monitoring measures.
The collaboration between Trade Unions and employees has
been indispensable and continuous and has led to the drafting
of several versions of detailed Artemide Protocols for each local
situation. At the end of February 2020, before the Protocol of
March 2020, a round table was set up with the Workers' Safety
Representatives (RLS), RSPP, HR, Competent Doctor and CEO.
The implementation of Covid-19 prevention measures has affected
the management of working hours, the company canteen and
even breaks from work, as well as leading to the launch of Smart
Working projects. In the first half of March 2020 a Smart Working
plan was officially launched, involving over 140 people.
The production activity of the Telgate site was prudentially
suspended on March 17, 2020, in advance of the lockdown
instituted on March 23. Meanwhile, the production sites of
Pregnana Milanese and Telgate (BG), the Milan offices and the
Italian showrooms were sanitized as a precautionary measure.
In the meantime, for all foreign subsidiaries where the virus
subsequently spread, Asian and Italian practices were put to use.
It is undeniable that many relationships have been affected by
the Covid-19 emergency, not least by technology; as such, this
phenomenon has been embraced by Artemide as an opportunity
for improvement. This has created new ways of communicating
between the company and employees, such as the digitalisation
of the administrative tasks, and the creation of union chats, new
employee email addresses and mailing lists with employees' private
addresses to assure a timely and capillary communication.
For a certain period of time, it was necessary to work remotely,
but in a research, product design and manufacturing company
like Artemide, a new in-presence routine was also introduced.
As aforementioned, technology and digitalisation have become
an integral part of a new work rhythm rather an alternative. In
this respect, the entire Artemide organisation has benefited from
the advantages of digitalisation that, rather than dematerialising
personal relationships, has strengthened communications and
brought the Artemide community around the world even closer
together.
The policy currently in use provides for the delivery of a "Manual
of Prevention and Protection Measures to counter and
contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus" and of an "Artemide
Supplementary Protocol for the prevention of the Covid-19
virus", a protocol that is periodically updated. In addition to the
measures already in place, such as staggered entry and exit times,
the daily delivery of disposable surgical masks, it should be noted
the reopening of the company canteen in Pregnana Milanese,
which took place in November 2020, a canteen specially renovated
in anti-counterfeiting mode with individual named stations.
Also worthy of mention is Artemide's most recent commitment,
strongly supported by the de Bevilacqua Gismondi family, a free
screening program using molecular swabs for Italian employees,
carried out in collaboration with Milan's San Raffaele Hospital.
S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y. O U R T E A M
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y R E P O R T
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