STAGE SULL’APPLICAZIONE NEI CANTIERI DEI PROTOLLI DI LEGALITÀ
RIVOLTO AGLI STUDENTI DEL «RIGHI» DI REGGIO CALABRIA

COURSE ON THE APPLICATION OF LEGALITY PROTOCOLS ON BUILDING SITES
FOR STUDENTS OF THE “RIGHI” SCHOOL, REGGIO CALABRIA
On 6 June 2013, Tangenziale Esterna completed a workplace safety training course for 18 fourth-year students from the “Augusto Righi” Istituto Tecnico Statale of Reggio Calabria (studying construction, environment and territory) with a focus on the application of legality protocols against the infiltration of organized crime in major works tenders associated with the Expo. The course took place over a week at the Southern Route Section of the Tangenziale Est Esterna di Milano building site.

The seminar was attended by the students’ lecturer/tutor Leonardo Carbone, Tangenziale Esterna Spa CEO Stefano Maullu, and Enrico Zorgati, the Chairman of LambroScarl and technical director at Impregilo (the lead company involved in building the TEEM Southern Route Section). The seminar was given in a LambroScarl classroom in Melegnano (Milan) by TE Head of Legality and Security Alberto Palombarini and LambroScarl legal protocols coordinator Jenni Bruzzise.

Throughout the course at the Southern Route Section, the students alternated between three hours a day of practical activities and an hour of theory. Before entering the classroom, they toured the TEEM building site at Casalmaiocco (Lodi), where staff provided them with technical information about the construction of a tunnel taking place at the time, and on the topic of specific safety procedures adopted to build this stretch of road.

The centrepiece of this day of the course was an in-depth look at the system of tender management controls set up by the concession-holder to implement the recommendations of legality protocols issued by prefectures involved in Expo-related infrastructure. This focus enabled the students from the “Righi” Institute – a leading establishment in the Italian school system and a recipient of numerous awards – to understand the fight against Mafia infiltration within the framework of key aspects of the broader issue of safety in the workplace. This is the linking theme of a course that will earn Professor Carbone’s students course credits. The course continued for a further week from 10 June at a building site on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway as part of a programme ratified by the Ministry of Education, University and Research.

One of the students commented: “Thanks to this seminar, I now know that safety in the workplace depends in part on compliance with regulations against the infiltration of tenders by organized crime. When building sites are ‘clean’, accidents remain few and far between; sub-tenders are also monitored, eliminating alarming phenomena such as off-the-books work.”

Another student said: “This experience has been an important part of my school education. It gave me a chance to combine theory and practice, improving my knowledge of workplace safety, especially in relation to legality protocols.”

Professor Carboni noted: “Our approach to teaching is to teach students about safety in the workplace and learn more about the relationship between major infrastructure works and the environment in which they are built. Thanks to this in-the-field experience on TEEM building sites, the students had a chance to learn about the different professional figures who work there and identify all of the potential dangers that must be averted by scrupulously applying applicable law and regulations.”

LambroScarl Chairman and Impregilo technical director Enrico Zorgati commented: “It is essential that we remain constantly vigilant, monitoring all the companies that work at our sites every day, from small businesses to major sub-contractors. This is why the action we are taking is very rigid and why we are working hard on a ‘team’ approach with the various Prefectures and other entities and parties involved. Our goal is to ensure our building sites provide a safe working place for all workers with utmost legal compliance.”

TE Stefano Maullu CEO noted: “Recent investigations into the infiltration of organized crime in tenders for major and minor works currently underway in Lombardy have shown – over the last few days – that there is a resurgence of this problem that needs to be fought not only through increased efforts by the forces of law and order, but – especially – by making young people aware of the issue. It is precisely with a view to training the future ‘sentries’ of civil society who will protect us against mafia involvement that TE, Impregilo and all the companies working on the Southern Route Section building sites have worked to provide these children with the basic information about the checks adopted by TE for managing tenders in compliance with the tender protocols adopted for Expo 2015.”