Welfare, to become global it must increasingly include SMEs

Supplementary pensions, supplementary healthcare and the dissemination of global welfare instruments to workers in small and medium-sized enterprises. It is around these three themes that our country must work to promote greater individual well-being and social sustainability. This was stated by the director of the Italian Welfare Observatory, Stefano Castrignanò, who, during the Global Welfare Summit, stressed the importance of having a multidimensional perspective.

Since its inception, the Observatory has acquired and processed the 'Global Welfare' initiatives of more than 200 companies of different sizes, employing more than 800,000 workers, analysing ten pillars: social security, healthcare, parenting, caregiving, insurance cover for major risks - premature death, invalidity and non-self-sufficiency -, work-life integration, physical and psychological wellbeing, training and personal growth, income support measures and welfare education. What emerges? First of all, there is a significant concentration of company initiatives on income support, work-life integration, training and physical and psychological wellbeing: about 3 out of 4 companies (73%) say this. On the contrary, less than 50% of the companies involved have adopted measures to support caregivers, workers' social and health needs or to protect against major risks (premature death, disability and non-self-sufficiency). Only 21% of the surveyed companies implemented actions aimed at encouraging the spread of complementary pension savings among their workers.

In order to improve the diffusion of welfare, another important area of intervention is undoubtedly the diffusion of global welfare instruments among workers in small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the analysis of the Italian Welfare Observatory, there are significant differences between the welfare levels of workers in larger enterprises compared to medium and small enterprises. While more than 73% of large firms adopt welfare measures that go beyond the national collective labour agreement, only 16% of smaller firms adopt welfare initiatives in addition to the contractual ones. It is precisely for this reason that contractual welfare initiatives adopted by the social partners assume a crucial role for the overall welfare of workers in small enterprises, which make up 99% of our productive fabric. Just to cite one case in point, the Observatory's calculations show that more than 90% of companies with more than 250 employees have made wellbeing, caregiving and parenting support services available to their employees. This percentage in companies with fewer than 250 workers falls below 30%. For Castrignanò it is therefore necessary to 'talk about the union between welfare and social sustainability in our country' and this 'means being fully aware that the majority of citizens will only be able to achieve adequate levels of wellbeing if public, contractual and company policies are oriented towards spreading culture, sensitivity, tools and services to workers belonging to the medium-small production fabric that characterises our system'.

Going into the merits of Castrignanò's proposals, on complementary pensions, the low level of enrolled workers must be overcome. Among the three key factors that favour the choice of joining a pension fund by workers, the first concerns the level of company contribution: in a context where only 16% of companies have provided for an increase, compared to the minimum set in the national collective labour agreement, of the contribution rate to be borne by the company, the data show that in cases where the company contribution is equal to or greater than 2.5% of salary, there is an average rate of participation in pension funds of 75.2%. The second key factor is related to insurance cover for major risks offered by pension funds: today only 7 out of 33 negotiated funds provide insurance guarantees in the event of worker premature death and disability. The Observatory's calculations show that, in the presence of such cover in the pension fund, the average worker adhesion rate rises to 73.63%. The last determining factor is the process of information and awareness-raising, on the part of companies, about the advantages of supplementary pension provision, especially when hiring workers. In the presence of these initiatives, the average membership rate recorded in the sample exceeds 80%. As Castrignanò explains, 'to achieve significant results in terms of pension fund membership, it is necessary, on the one hand, to strengthen the appeal of the Funds and, at the same time, to develop effective awareness-raising campaigns to inform workers about the advantages of supplementary pensions'.

To improve the sustainability of welfare, the second area of intervention concerns supplementary healthcare. According to data from the Italian Welfare Observatory, there is a high degree of coverage among private sector employees: almost 90% have at least some form of health cover (company or contractual) which, in 78% of cases, also includes the family unit. Health cover is financed by the company in 52% of cases. 17% of the companies analysed by the Observatory have introduced, for the benefit of workers, additional health cover in addition to the basic one, which in 64% of the cases examined is entirely borne by the company and is aimed at extending the level of health protection in terms of the services recognised, the relative maximum/coverage limits, or the beneficiaries of the cover. For Castrignanò, 'in a context that sees, on the one hand, an objective difficulty for the National Health Service in providing services in an appropriate timeframe and, on the other, an increasing number of citizens renouncing treatment, the important role that supplementary healthcare can play in supporting the system, adopting a new logic of 'functional complementarity', emerges forcefully.