Objectives
Overrall objectives
The overall objective of the project is to improve the existing regulatory tools providing new opportunities for workers and proposing new strategies and measures to implement effective policies and actions aimed at fostering the relocation and social inclusion of people with transplanted organs or suffering from chronic diseases. There are many and constantly increasing numbers of people who are in poor health conditions or who have developed disabilities that require reasonable accommodation in the workplace or who are become partially or totally unfit for the specific job they have previously done but they are not entitled to welfare benefits.
Their return to work in precarious health conditions is a very difficult experience from the psychological and professional point of view and, generally, it is not adequately supported and accompanied due to the carelessness of the phenomenon in its scope and specificity and the lack of systemic vision and coordination between the institutional actors abstractly involved and theoretically competent in the field.
Through the analysis of the current regulatory framework it will be possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the measures so far drafted by the legislator in order to ensure the continuity of work of those who underwent transplantation and those affected by chronic diseases, in order to outline possible reform proposals to ensure greater effectiveness to inclusion policies and resources invested.
Innovative objectives - added value
Returning to work after a transplant or a long period of treatment and convalescence is a very delicate and difficult experience, too often not adequately supported. In this regard, there is a lack of planning and actions aimed at solving these situations of increasing importance, in terms of quantity (number of workers involved) and quality (sectors and tasks performed). The innovation that this project brings is that of a new approach to the issue. No longer only in terms of social security and welfare, but in terms of a guided and targeted reintegration into the productive world of these people.
First of all, the research project will develop its own analysis both on the legal rules and on the role played by industrial relations and collective bargaining in ensuring adequate conditions for the return to work or transition to other working positions. Collecting and analysing collective agreements and contractual schemes at sectoral, territorial and company level will allow to identify not only general trends, but also the best practices to be disseminated and replicated in other working contexts. The analysis of negotiated policies in the field of return to work and transition from job to job will not only take into consideration the measures established by collective agreements, but also the role played by bilateral bodies established in the context of the industrial relations system in order to better understand the current situation and the future perspective from an institutional standpoint.
Secondly, the proponents are aware of the importance of early recognition of the situations that will probably result in the need to manage accommodation, training, or other measures to guarantee the return to work or the transition to another occupation.
Building on the experiences of foreign legal systems, the research will focus on the measures that are adopted to enable the early recognition and develop its reasoning on the improvements that can be introduced by law or by collective agreements.
Moreover, considering the organisational consequences of managing the pathways for the integration or reintegration of people with a compromised state of health, the research will develop an in-depth study on the professional figures who in practice are managing such complicated transition stages in companies and organisations. The goal is to identify paths from legal or collective bargaining or technical standards perspectives for the definition of professional figures and for the recognition and construction of the skills necessary to carry out the work inclusion process. Finally, the results obtained will be made available to the institutional actors and stakeholders through guidelines and codes of conduct to better coordinate the reintegration of people with health problems into work and society and to train professionals to deal with these individuals.