Workplace safety in Italy: what does an employer have to do?

Does Italian safety law apply to a foreign company?

Yes, as soon as there are people working in Italy. Legislative Decree 81/2008 (in Italy simply «the 81», or the Consolidated Act on health and safety at work) applies to all sectors of activity, private and public, and to all types of risk, and to all workers, employed or self-employed, and to the people treated as workers.¹ It makes no difference whether the company is Italian or the branch of a foreign group, nor whether the workers are Italian.

The decree defines a worker by what they do, not by the contract: anyone who works within the organisation of an employer, with or without pay, including trainees and interns.¹ A company that opens an office, a warehouse or a site in Italy therefore takes on the duties of this guide from the first hire.

The two duties an employer cannot delegate

The employer can delegate many tasks to managers, but not these two:¹

• assessing all the risks and writing the document that records the assessment (the DVR);
• appointing the RSPP, the person in charge of the prevention and protection service.

Both remain with the employer even when a consultant does the work. Missing either one is a criminal offence (see Penalties).

The risk assessment document (DVR): within 90 days

The Documento di Valutazione dei Rischi covers all the risks to health and safety, including work-related stress, pregnancy, gender, age and the country of origin of the workers. It must contain the measures adopted, the programme for improving safety over time, the procedures and who carries them out, and the names of the RSPP, the workers' representative and the company doctor. It must have a certain date, proven for example by the signatures of the employer, the RSPP, the representative and the doctor.¹

A new company must assess the risks immediately and write the document within 90 days from the start of its activity; in the meantime it must still show, in writing, the measures it has taken.¹ The DVR is revised within 30 days of significant changes in production or organisation, of a serious injury, or when health surveillance shows it is needed.¹

Companies with up to 10 workers assess the risks with the standardised procedures, a simplified model of the document.¹

Who does what: RSPP, company doctor, workers' representative, emergency staff

RSPP (Responsabile del Servizio di Prevenzione e Protezione). Identifies the risk factors, works out the prevention measures and procedures, proposes the training and takes part in the periodic safety meeting. It can be an employee, an external consultant or, in smaller companies, the employer in person: up to 30 workers in craft and industrial companies, up to 30 in farming, up to 20 in fishing and up to 200 in the other sectors, after a specific course.¹²

Company doctor (medico competente). Needed when the law or the risk assessment requires health surveillance: see Health surveillance.

Workers' representative for safety (RLS). There must be one in every company, elected or designated by the workers. Up to 15 workers it is normally elected directly by them, or a territorial representative (RLST) covers several companies of the area; above 15 it comes from the trade union representatives in the company, or the workers elect it.¹ The employer consults the RLS on the risk assessment, on the appointments and on training.

Emergency staff. The employer designates in advance the workers in charge of fire prevention, evacuation and first aid, and has them trained (see Fire and first aid). In companies where the employer can act as RSPP, the employer can also take on these tasks personally.¹

Supervisors and managers (preposti and dirigenti) organise and supervise the work; supervisors must stop the work if a worker keeps ignoring the safety rules. Both have their own training.

Training: how many hours, and when

Every worker receives information on the risks and on the emergency procedures, and training whose hours and contents are set by the State-Regions Agreement of 17 April 2025.¹² Training must take place:

• when the employment begins (or when a temp worker starts);
• when the worker is transferred or changes job;
• when new equipment, technologies or dangerous substances are introduced.

It happens during working hours and costs the worker nothing.¹ The minimum hours are:²

The risk class depends on the sector of the company (its ATECO code) and on the result of the risk assessment: the hours are minimums and grow if the risks require it. The general part counts for life; the specific part and the refreshers do not include the hands-on practice (addestramento), which is done on the job by an expert person and recorded.¹²

Training in a language workers understand

The law is explicit: information and training must be easy to understand for the workers, and when they concern immigrant workers they can only start after checking that the worker understands the language used in the course.¹ A course in Italian for someone who does not follow Italian does not fulfil the obligation.

The Agreement also sets the format. A video-conference in real time with the trainer counts as a classroom; e-learning is allowed for the general part and, for some courses, beyond it; courses with hands-on practice are in person only.² At Aequor the courses for medium and high risk workers are also available entirely in English by video-conference, e-learning is available in 18 languages (others on request) and, in the classroom, we have English, French, Arabic and Spanish native-speaking trainers: see the courses in English.

Equipment that needs a licence

For some equipment, operators need a specific licence (abilitazione), obtained with a course that ends with a written and a practical test. The list is in the Agreement of 2025: mobile elevating work platforms (MEWP), lorry-mounted cranes, tower cranes, forklift trucks with the operator on board, mobile cranes, agricultural and forestry tractors, earth-moving machines, concrete pumps, fruit-picking platforms, materials handling loaders and, since 2025, overhead and gantry cranes.²

These courses are in person only, both the first course and the refresher, and the licence is renewed every 5 years with at least 4 hours of practice. The licence does not replace the training and practice on the employer's own machines.² The most searched one, the forklift licence, has its own page in English.

Health surveillance

When the law or the risk assessment require it, the employer appoints a company doctor, who runs the health surveillance: a preventive medical examination, also before hiring, to check that the worker is fit for the job; periodic examinations, normally once a year unless other rules or the doctor set a different interval; an examination when the job changes and at the worker's request when it relates to the work risks.¹

Each fitness assessment is given in writing to the worker and the employer, and the worker can appeal to the local health authority (ASL) within 30 days.¹

Emergencies: fire and first aid

The employer organises first aid, rescue, fire fighting and evacuation, and designates the workers in charge.¹ An emergency plan, with the names of the fire wardens, is required where at least 10 workers are employed, in workplaces open to the public with more than 50 people present at the same time, and in the activities subject to fire brigade inspections. Elsewhere the emergency measures are written in the DVR.³

Fire wardens take a course whose length depends on the level of the activity: 4, 8 or 16 hours for levels 1, 2 and 3, with 2, 3 or 4 hours of practical exercises, and a refresher at least every 5 years. Only the theory can be followed in a live video-conference; in some activities, such as hotels with more than 100 beds or offices with more than 500 people, wardens also need the fire brigade's technical fitness certificate.³

First aiders are trained according to the group of the company (A, B or C) with theory and practice given by medical staff, and repeat the training at least every three years, at least for the practical part.⁴

Contracts and building sites

If you award works, services or supplies to contractors or self-employed workers inside your premises, you must check their technical and professional suitability, give them detailed information on the risks of the place, and cooperate with them on the measures. You also write a single document on the risks from interference between the companies, the DUVRI, attached to the contract; it is not needed for intellectual services, mere supplies of materials or equipment, and works lasting up to five man-days in a year, unless they involve particular risks such as confined spaces, asbestos or explosive atmospheres.¹

On temporary and mobile construction sites the rules are stricter: each contractor writes its own safety plan for the site (the POS, Piano Operativo di Sicurezza), and employers and managers who work on building sites add a 6-hour «Building sites» module to their course.¹² If your company works in Italy as a supplier of another company, expect the client to ask for your DVR, your appointments and your workers' training certificates before you start.

Penalties

Most breaches of the decree are criminal offences, with arrest or a fine. The employer who does not assess the risks, or does not appoint the RSPP, faces arrest from three to six months or a fine from €3,559.60 to €9,112.57.¹ Failing to inform workers carries arrest from two to four months or a fine from €1,708.61 to €7,403.96. When training or health surveillance are missing for more than five workers the amounts are doubled, for more than ten they are tripled.¹

The amounts are those of the consolidated text published by the National Labour Inspectorate in January 2026; they are updated periodically.