An Inclusion Observatory and a disability manager in a pharmaceutical company

The company management of the pharmaceutical multinational Merck Serono and the sector trade union representatives of CISL, CGIL and UIL recently signed an experimental project aimed at integrating workers with disabilities through a specific company observatory on labor inclusion in Rome. and also with the appointment of a disability manager. This is the first initiative of its kind in the pharmaceutical sector, which has the objective of enhancing workers with disabilities or suffering from serious pathologies, right from their entry into the company

overcoming.en – March 17, 2017

It was signed in Rome on 10 March last, by the Company Management of the pharmaceutical multinational Merck Serono, the FEMCA CISL of Rome Capital and Rieti, the FILCTEM CGIL and theUILTEC UIL*, an experimental project aimed at the inclusion of workers with disabilities in a business context, through a specific Company Observatory on Work Inclusion.
This is the first initiative of its kind in the pharmaceutical sector, which has the objective of enhancing workers with disabilities or suffering from serious (or worsening) pathologies, starting from the delicate moment of their entry into the company and throughout the rest of their lives professional.

proposed byNational Observatory on the Conditions of People with Disabilities, which operates at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, the project is starting experimentally, for a duration of two years, and in line with it, the Company Management of Merck Serono has agreed with the Trade Union Organizations of the category to appoint the disability manager in the person of Francesco Luchi, responsible for the Human Resources company, who will be responsible for the integration of workers with disabilities, facilitating relations within the company itself, as well as identifying and making accessible the necessary technical and organizational solutions.

As stated in the text of the Constitutive Agreement, «the project intends to involve and qualify the role of the company, triggering a structured set of actions and interventions in order to: favor the creation of opportunities to improve the quality of work and relationships within the company; put the person with disability in the conditions to be able to be productive in a way congruent with their abilities and aspirations; individuate, in agreement with the person, reasonable accommodations and organizational solutions capable of enhancing the skills and competences of each worker; favor organizational well-being and containing conflicts; guarantee what is foreseen for the generality of workers, including safety, access to services, moments of relationship; to promote The constant monitoring of the obstacles of an organisational, environmental and behavioral nature which prevent the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace and to identify organizational solutions also within forms of decentralized contracting".

“We strongly wanted this result – reads a note from the FEMCA CISL of Rome Capital and Rieti – and today we evaluate very positively the agreement reached and equally positive the action of the Company Management of Merck Serono, which got involved to find all the possible solutions, involving the Unitary Trade Union Representative in the project. This last element – we are convinced – will constitute an added value, since on issues such as disability in the workplace, the Unitary Union Representative itself will be able to convey and receive input and suggestions from workers. In other words, one way to do that it makes the difference between those in companies who believe they can unilaterally implement projects with a high social value and those who, like Merck Serono, share these paths».
"Special thanks - concludes the FEMCA CISL note - for the achievement of this first agreement, which we hope will be the trailblazer for other similar agreements in the chemical/pharmaceutical sector, goes to Silvia Stefanovichj, responsible for Disability Policies of the National CISL, for the availability and valuable and competent support, and ad Angelo Colombini of our National Secretariat, for the sensitivity and interest dedicated to this so delicate topic of which still too little talk". (SB)

*FEMCA is the Federation of Energy, Fashion, Chemistry and the like of the CISL; FILCTEM is the Italian Federation of Chemical Textile Energy Manufacturing Workers of the CGIL; UILTEC is the Italian Union of Textile Energy Chemical Workers of the UIL.

Text of project

text ofagreement