co-funded by the European Commission

IncreMe(n)tal aims to provide quality training to trade unionists and worker representatives in the metalworking industry across 7 target countries and at the transnational level, with the aim of increasing their awareness of emerging psychosocial risks related to the work environment and work organization, as well as the strategic role of social dialogue and collective bargaining initiatives in protecting and promoting workers' mental health. This will be achieved through (1) close collaboration among research partners, experts, trade unions, and associated organizations and the implementation of 22 thematic training sessions (at national and transnational levels); (2) the implementation of communication and dissemination activities designed to integrate with other European and international initiatives organized on the theme of risk prevention and promotion of mental health in work contexts.

Coordinator: FIM-CISL (IT)

Partners: Fondazione ADAPT (IT) UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (ES), UGT FICA (ES), KU Leuven (BE), VZW (BE), UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI (SI), SKEI (SI), HACETTEPE UNIVERSITESI (TR), TMS (TR), DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY (IE), SIPTU (IE), CELSI (SK)

Associate Organisations: OS-KOVO (SK), INDUSTRIALL EUROPE (EU)

Affiliated Entities: ADAPT (IT) 

co-funded by the European Commission

In line with the general dynamics influencing European economies, the banking and insurance sectors are heavily impacted by digital transition. In fact, in recent years, the financial world has undergone significant transformation due to declining revenues and the COVID-19 pandemic: from 2010 to 2020, traditional banks have reduced staff and even more so, branches, a phenomenon recently termed 'banking desertification.' In light of this, banking and insurance companies have recently invested in digitizing most of their services - also aiming to meet the expectations of digitally advanced customers. The FinAI project arises from the belief that, in the current state of digital transition, there is a need to find a balance between the needs of financial companies in terms of operational efficiency and effectiveness and the safeguarding of jobs, skills, and working conditions of workers - a balance that can best be achieved through constructive dialogue and exchanges between representative associations of these groups, i.e., social partners. Therefore, the underlying idea of FinAI is to analyze the impact of new technologies (particularly Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) on the financial sector in Europe and in 9 Member States (+ 1 candidate country and 2 EEA countries) - including effects on the labor market - with the subsequent aim of facilitating the exchange of best practices among social partners active in those countries and at the European level. The project involves a research phase, complemented by training activities and dedicated communication and dissemination tasks aimed at spreading the impact of the project even after its conclusion.

Coordinator: FIRST-CISL (IT)

Partners: Fondazione ADAPT (IT), KU Leuven (BE)

Associate Organisations: : UNI Europa (EU), CISL (IT), OTOE (EL), NFU (SE), BBDSZ (HU), Sindicatul UPA (RO), BASISEN (TR), FeSMC-UGT (ES), CFDT B&A (FR), ANIA (IT)

Affiliated Entities: Fondazione FIBA (IT), ADAPT (IT) 

co-funded by the European Commission

GDPiR: Managing Data Processing in the Workplace through Industrial Relations. The project idea is to provide trade unionists with adequate information and training in order to manage the dynamics connected to workers' data processing and to data processing in the workplace in the broad sense. The objective is to provide workers' organisations with the skills and knowledge needed to harness, with a proactive attitude, the potential of small and big data in their action. Indeed, while the analysis of workplace data is usually managed by the employer to inform business decisions, trade unions can play a role in these processes and exploit the potential of data also for the improvement of workers' conditions (i.e. regarding wages, work organization and health and safety). Moreover, the same skills and knowledge are fundamental to enable workers’ organisations to protect workers from the expected risks of datafication (i.e. intensified monitoring of the work and the workers; data-driven decision making). GDPiR aims at improving collective bargaining and social dialogue initiatives in this field and enhancing the adoption of collective solutions for the protection of workers’ rights in the midst of technological surveillance and a sustainable digital transformation. While other actions financed under this budget line have been intended to foster the role of industrial relations in managing the digital transition, this would be the first action to address the topic from the specific perspective of data processing in the workplace.

Coordinator: FIM-CISL (IT)

Beneficiaries: ADAPT (IT), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ES), Federacion de industria, construcción y agro de la union general de trabajadores (ES), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE), Universiteit Van Amsterdam (NL), Recht en Plicht vzw (BE), Izmir Katip Celebi Universitesi (TK), Turkiye Metal, Celik, Muhimmat, Makina, Metalden Mamul Esya ve Oto, Montaj ve Yardimci Isciler Sendikasi (TMS) (TK), Stredoeuropsky Institut Pre vyskumprace Zdruzenie (CELSI) (SK).

Affiliated Entities: Fondazione ADAPT (IT) 

Associate Organisations: IndustriAll Europe (EU), Konfederácia odborových zväzov Slovenskej republiky (SK).

co-funded by the European Commission

The increasingly accelerating digital transformation is rapidly changing the ways in which people contribute to societies, live and work. According to the DESI Index (2019), over the past years, all EU member states are significantly improving their digital performance, while the Innovation Scoreboard results demonstrate annual improvements within the EU. Such swift digitalisation has an enormous impact on the nature, quality and productivity of work. These changes, however, are not well reflected in collective labour agreements and overall bargaining practices. In Italy, for example, there are over 800 national collective agreements, but they are outdated and rarely correspond to the new digital realities. This leads to growing management difficulties among companies, especially SMEs, it worsens the quality of employment relationships, etc. Therefore, this project aims to enhance the social dialogue and quality of employment by guiding social partners, along with other stakeholders, towards a better understanding of the implications of digital transformation on the collective labour agreements. The project will analyse how these two areas impact the state-of-play in the workplace, how they are currently reflected in the social partners’ collective bargaining practices and, particularly, in the collective labour agreements. The project will strengthen the social dialogue by providing guidelines and recommendations for enhancing smart working and digital skills development through the collaboration between social partners and potentially updated collective labour agreements.

Partners:CONFIMI (IT)

Partners: ADAPT(IT), EUROPEAN DIGITAL SME ALLIANCE(EU), FIM-CISL VENETO (IT)

Supporters:CONFIMI Servizi, CONFIMI Industria Digitale, FIM-CISL, industriAll

Campaign promoted by EU-OSHA

(European Agency for Safety and Health at Work)

Millions of workers across Europe suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). About three in every five workers in the European Union report MSD complaints, based on data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey.Work-related MSDs are impairments of bodily structures, such as muscles, joints and tendons, that are caused or aggravated primarily by work or the effects of the immediate work environment. They can be highly detrimental to an individual’s quality of life and ability to work, and are one of the most common causes of disability, sick leave and early retirement. The most common work-related MSDs are backache and pains in the upper limbs. Physical, organisational, psychosocial and individual factors can contribute to their development. According to the 2019 European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks, the most frequently identified risk factor in the EU-27 is repetitive hand or arm movements (reported by 65 % of establishments). Other MSD-related risks include prolonged sitting (61 %) — often considered a new or emerging MSD risk — lifting or moving people or heavy loads (52 %), time pressure (45 %), and tiring or painful positions (31 %). Although MSDs are preventable, they remain the most common work-related health problem in Europe. This is cause for concern not only because of their effects on the health of individual workers, but also because of their detrimental impact on businesses and national economies.

ADAPT has been appointed as Official Media Partner of the ongoing "Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load” Campaign.

co-funded by the European Commission

EMPOWER is a multidisciplinary research and innovation effort aiming to developing, implementing, evaluating and disseminating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a modular eHealth intervention platform to promote health and well-being, reduce psychological distress, prevent common mental health problems and reduce their impact in the workplace. In collaboration with stakeholders, project partners will adapt existing effective interventions focused on different components (awareness and stigma, workplace conditions and psychosocial factors, stress, common mental health symptoms, early detection, comorbidity, lifestyle, and return to work) to create a combined online modular platform feasible in various workplace settings by culturally and contextually adapting it. The intervention will be implemented through a randomized controlled trial directed to employees and employers of small and medium sized enterprises and public agencies from three European countries (Spain, Finland and Poland). Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in the evaluation of the individual health outcomes, cost-effectiveness (from a social, economic, employer and employees’ perspective), and implementation facilitators and barriers. Implementation strategies relevant to the uptake of the EMPOWER intervention will be identified, including a realistic appraisal of barriers to uptake as well as evidence-based solutions to these barriers. Through scaling-up pre-existing effective and cost-effective interventions, EMPOWER is aimed at addressing the overarching challenges from different perspectives, including individual level (e.g., addressing stigma, mental health, well- being and lifestyles, taking into account legal, cultural and gender issues) and organizational level. The main outcomes effort will help employees, employers and policymakers in decision processes of new legal and contractual framework at EU and national level covering the new economy landscape.

Coordinator: Fundacio Sant Joan De Deu (FSJD)

Partners: Fondazione ADAPT, Universidad Autonoma De Madrid (UAM), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR), Fondazione Irccs Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta (Fincb), University Of York (UOY), Schweizer Paraplegiker-Forschung Ag (SPF), The Australian National University (ANU), City Of Turku (CITY OF TURKU), Omada Interactiva Sll (OMADA), Instytut Medycyny Pracy Imienia Prof. Dra Med. Jerzego Nofera W Lodzi (NIOM), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

co-funded by the European Commission

Tackling digitalisation as one of the priority areas set by the European Social Dialogue Work Programme for 2019-2021, BargainUp aims at enhancing social dialogue and collective bargaining to strike a balance between competing interests (of the many stakeholders involved) for an inclusive and sustainable digital future. To achieve this goal, BargainUP can count on a strong and valuable partnership, composed of trade union organisations and research centers from 6 Member States, many of these already involved in the previous SUNI project, that will be engaged in capacity- and knowledge-building initiatives targeted to workers’ representatives in the manufacturing sector. Within an increasingly interconnected world, due to both market pressures and technological advancements, these activities will be developed with a strong transnational dimension, which could allow workers’ representatives to act and bargain in a far-sighted manner, with a focus beyond territorial and national borders.

Coordinator: FIM-CISL (IT)

Partners: ADAPT (IT), Office of Cooperation between the Ruhr University of Bochum and IG Metall (DE), Luleå Tekniska Universitet (SE), IF Metall (SE), UGT-FICA (ES), Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (ES), HIVA KU-Leuven (BE), ACV-CSC Metra (BE), WETCO (BG).

co-funded by the INAIL

La ricerca Il Testo Unico di salute e sicurezza sul lavoro e la tutela assicurativa alla prova della IV rivoluzione industriale ha preso avvio nell’aprile 2019 e si è conclusa nell’aprile 2021. Il progetto, commissionato al Centro Studi Internazionali e Comparati dell’Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (DEAL), è stato cofinanziato dall’Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL) nell’ambito della linea di finanziamento BRIC e ha avuto come partner Fondazione ADAPT.

Obiettivo della ricerca è lo studio degli impatti sulla normativa di salute e sicurezza sui lavoratori dei profondi cambiamenti (tecnologici, demografici, ambientali) che vengono indicati con il concetto di IV rivoluzione industriale. Il rapido passaggio da una dimensione fisica ad una più intellettuale del lavoro, l’ascesa di forme innovative di interazione tra uomo e macchina nell’era degli esoscheletri, l’affermazione di nuove modalità organizzative rese possibili dalle nuove tecnologie (smart-working e co-working). Tutti questi cambiamenti determinano l’insorgenza di nuovi rischi, non solo di natura fisica ma anche psico-sociale, per i lavoratori. Il progetto di ricerca accoglie così la sfida di ripensare interamente la normativa di salute e sicurezza nei nuovi ambienti di lavoro, sia in termini di tutele e obblighi previsti dalla normativa italiana in materia di salute e sicurezza sul lavoro che si assicurazione dei lavoratori.

I risultati della ricerca sono stati raccolti in diverse pubblicazioni. Oltre alla ricerca vera e propria, condotta con un approccio comparato e multidisciplinare, sono stati pubblicati prodotti utili ad orientare la pratica degli operatori della salute e della sicurezza sul lavoro. Sono stati coinvolti esperti provenienti da altri Paesi per arricchire la conoscenza dei cambiamenti e degli impatti condividendo i risultati del progetto e facendoli dialogare con chi si occupa da anni del tema.

Coordinator: Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Partner: Fondazione ADAPT

Coordinated by the Centre for International and Comparative Studies of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (DEAL), Fondazione ADAPT participated in the project cofounded  by Italy’s National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL). The project aimed to provide an examination of legislation in five countries – Italy, France, Spain, the UK and the USA – concurrently analyzing OHS, insurance coverage in the event of job-related accidents and the new skills needed to adapt workplace protection measures to the changes resulting from the digitalization of work processes.

Specifically, Fondazione ADAPT, was in charge of the following project activities: a) analysis of the legal, institutional and contractual framework in all the countries under evaluation in order to identify the best practices to deal with the issues arising in new work settings and put forward amendments to current legislation b) identification of the new skills required in the field of OHS to cope with workplace risks c) result dissemination. Fondazione ADAPT worked in cooperation with DEAL, which provided support to the following tasks: a) evaluating how changes to work affect, either directly or indirectly, OHS and insurance coverage in the event of accidents, pinpointing new risk factors b) in each country surveyed, identifying case law dealing with protection against work-related accidents c) contributing to the drafting of legislative amendments

co-funded by the European Commission

SoDiMa (Social Dialogue for the future of Manufacturing) is intended to to put social dialogue at the center of the transition towards the manufacture of the future and wants to do it right at the European level, by strengthening the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee on Metal Industry answering to the challenges of the EU document. A new start for social dialogue, its activities and its visibility with new and innovative results and activities. The reinforcement of the Committee and the involvement of countries with different maturation levels of digital manufacturing will favor the exchange of good practices and the development of guidelines that can help individual states to increase both business innovation levels and workers’ skills.

Coordinator:  Federmeccanica (IT)

Partners:  ADAPT(IT), FUNDAE (ES), GSZ (SLO)

Supporters: Ceemet – European Tech & Industry Employers,  IndustriAll European Trade Union, UIMM, FIM-CISL, FIOM-CGIL, UILM-UIL.

co-funded by the European Commission

SUNI (Smart Unions for New Industry) is intended to strengthen the ability of workers’ organisations to deal with the challenges arising from the digitalisation of production. It brings together research centres and workers’ organisations from EU countries, excelling in manufacturing production and representing different types of economies, in a view of designing and performing information and training measures as well as social dialogue initiatives targeted to employees’ representatives in the manufacturing sector.

Coordinator: FIM-CISL (IT)

Partners: ADAPT (IT), Ruhr University of Bochum (DE), Luleå Tekniska Universitet (SE), IF Metall (SE), Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (ES), FICA-UGT (ES)

co-funded by the European Commission

The aim of the project is to understand processes through which social partners develop, pilot and implement active ageing interventions (including collective agreements) and reorient away from a collusion toward early retirement. European social partners have developed programmes to support older workers delay retirement and ASPIRE’s aim is to understand how Industrial Relations (IR) systems can facilitate and/or inhibit such agreements.

Coordinator: University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK)

Partners: Fondazione ADAPT (IT), Universidad de Granada (ES) and University of Lodz (PL)

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad del Gobierno español (MINECO)

The E-guide is the main guide to the Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2016-17, ‘Healthy Workplaces for All Ages’, organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). Its overall aim is to help workers, managers and employers recognise and manage the challenges of an ageing workforce, focusing not on one age group, but on workers of all ages. It also highlights the importance of using a life-course approach. Fostering healthy working practices in young workers and developing good working conditions promotes sustainable work throughout their working lives and ensures healthy ageing.

co-funded by the European Commission

Consapevoli che il cambiamento demografico in atto in tutta Europa e la recente riforma pensionistica hanno portato alcune sostanziali conseguenze, la ricerca approfondisce il tema su come rendere sostenibile il lavoro degli over 55 nel settore manifatturiero nelle imprese italiane

Promotori: ADAPT, AIDP e Dipartimento di psicologia dell'Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano

co-funded by the European Commission

financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

La ricerca si propone l’obiettivo di individuare buone prassi e costruire percorsi sperimentali in relazione all’espletamento delle attività di formazione e informazione sulla salute e sicurezza nei luoghi di lavoro per i giovani e delle donne che prestano la propria attività nell’ambito delle piccole imprese artigiane, per la messa a punto di un nuovo prototipo innovativo basato su Case Studies cioè sulla raccolta e la modellizzazione di una serie di cluster sperimentati

The theme of European Agency for Safety and Health at Work’s (EU-OSHA) Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2010-11 is ‘safe maintenance’. ADAPT supports this campaign in order to animate  animating European stakeholder (employers, trade unions, workers, safety representatives, practitioners services, policy makers) in creating healthy workplaces through research activities and dissemination events

co-funded by the European Commission

The overall aim of ELDERS project is to address the consequences of restructuring and economic crisis in terms of stress and well-being for older workers, and to identify the proper measures with the aim of preventing, managing and mitigating such consequences

Applicant: ADAPT
Partners: Middlesex University (UK), ESADE – Business school (ES), IBW– Institute for Research on Qualifications and Training of the Austrian Economy (AT), BAuA – Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (DE), FIOH – Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FI)
Supporters: AGE, the European Older people’s Platform, Businesseurope

co-funded by the European Commission

L’obiettivo della ricerca è quello di favorire lo sviluppo di modelli regolativi e di organizzazione del lavoro, che garantiscano maggiore effettività delle tutele per queste tipologie di lavoratori vulnerabili. Al tempo stesso essa mira ad individuare linee guida e buone prassi per la prevenzione dei rischi in materia, considerata la grande importanza che ad esse viene attribuita dal decreto legislativo n. 81 del 2008 ed ancor più alla luce del decreto correttivo n. 106 del 2009, ciò anche attraverso un’ottica comparata che tanga conto della evoluzione delle suddette problematiche nel contesto comunitario ed internazionale

co-funded by the European Commission

The project intends to promote awareness-raising and information campaigns on this issue, aimed at company management and human resources departments. The aim of these initiatives is to create effective strategies for the protection of women workers with oncological conditions

Coordinator: ADAPT
Partners: Marco Biagi Centre for International and Comparative Studies of the Department of Business Economy – University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT), Comune di Milano (IT), Europa Donna Italy, Europa Donna Sweden, Europa Donna France, Europa Donna Netherlands