The Ministerial decree (D.M. n. 95/2025) on climate emergencies in workplaces has been published in the legal advertising section of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies. This decree adopts the “Framework protocol for the adoption of containment measures of work-related risks linked to climate emergencies in workplaces”. Its main goal is to ensure homogenous application of containment measures for work-related risks due to climate emergencies.
Employers are required to submit to the locally competent INPS office, the local agreements signed with the union side to implement the annexed protocol. Such agreements provide for the provision of wage integration measures aimed at dealing with exceptional climatic situations.
Duty-holders, while obliged to give full effect to the legislation on health and safety at work (D.Lgs. n. 81/2008), are now to refer to agreements that apply the framework protocol to address the needs to contain risks arising from climate emergencies. This includes exposure to high temperatures, all of which should be done with the aim of fully protecting the physical and mental conditions of female and male workers.
In the event of an emergency, as per the legislation and any provisions possibly adopted by the authorities, trade union and employer sides also commit themselves to activate national sectoral, territorial or company bargaining tables. Here, good practices and necessary shared measures for specific realities of different sectors, company sizes, territories and industrial and working processes will be outlined.
The negotiation tables can also intervene on topics such as information / training, health surveillance, clothing / garments / dpi, reorganization of work shifts and schedules. The adoption of agreements applying the Framework Protocol in a category, territory or company may result in award criteria recognized by INAIL for adhering companies.
The parties will meet periodically to verify the application of the indications in the protocol, and six months from its signing. Furthermore, the parties that signed the Framework Protocol request the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies to formally adopt it and commit supporting its effectiveness by adopting all necessary measures to ensure necessary protections to male and female workers. They also seek support for the productive system in line with the need to reschedule the work schedule to cope with the measures which could affect its application and to formally classify the ordinances or implementing protocols as elements to protect companies from potential liabilities, such as those connected to delays in delivering work tied to extreme climatic events.
