THE AVIO AERO

PEOPLE’S MAGAZINE

Managing the emergency has required, and still requires, great sacrifice on the part of companies to safeguard their employees and, at the same time, their competitiveness to remain on the market. “Ensuring safety has been our priority over recent months,” said Vincenzo Micheli, EHS Leader of Avio Aero. Over the past eight years, Micheli has headed the Environment Health and Safety department for the entire company, relying on a team of managers at each office who in turn are fully supported on site by their own teams of experts in health and safety, as well as environmental protection, on the workplace.

"Keeping the production lines running through ensuring all the required protective measures for workers was a huge effort that paid off as the cases recorded within the facilities were contained when compared to the total number of workers, and were not caused by the workers themselves. In addition to strictly complying with the directives, we have always worked alongside central and local institutions to help our community overcome the pandemic. Therefore, an occasion not to be missed was the call to arms by the Government and Confindustria to support the mass immunization campaign in the workplace.”

An Avio Aero employee getting his vaccine shot at the workplace.

In fact, Avio Aero immediately made itself available to organize vaccination points across Italy in the towns and cities where its offices are located: Rivalta for the northern Italian offices, Pomigliano and Brindisi for the south, providing space and personnel. The adopted solution took into account the different regional realities and made it possible to optimize the operations.

The first to start was the Puglia office where a collaboration was launched with the Local Health Authority in Brindisi for the hub they manage and which, on the first Open Day alone, made it possible to vaccinate more than 200 employees who were among the first to sign up for the initiative. “We were very proud of this public-private partnership,” said Roberto Bertaina, Brindisi Plant Leader. “It was an opportunity for us to continue to protect and safeguard the well-being of our people, with the objective of contributing to a more rapid return to normality, not only for our company but for the entire local community.”

Cristina Guarini and Roberto Bertaina, second and third from the right, with the Puglia Region delegates at the Brindisi Hub.

At almost the same time, the Pomigliano d'Arco and Piedmont offices were set in motion: the latter were channeled to the hub managed by the Unione industriale di Torino (Industries Association of Turin). In fact, Avio Aero is one of the 700 companies in the Piedmont region - the Association has a total of over 30,000 members employed by industrial companies - that have signed up for the initiative.

“Our offices in Piedmont (Rivalta, Borgaretto, Cameri and Sangone) have always been part of an industrial ecosystem that has given a united and solid response to the emergency,” commented Vincenzo Micheli, “The opening of a vaccine site by the confederation of industry represents the desire to return to normality as quickly as possible. Thanks to the center's vaccination capacity - which has 8 active lines with a capacity of 700 vaccinations per day - we have offered employees and their families a preferential route to immunization.”

Gioacchino Ficano, second from right, with delegates from Red Cross and ASL Napoli3.

Pomigliano d'Arco, on the other hand, hosted a real vaccination hub managed inside its vast company facility in collaboration with the Naples Sud Local Health Authority (ASL Napoli 3). “Avio Aero represents the first time, in the region of the Napoli 3 Sud, that a large company has opened its doors to the vaccination campaign,” commented Gioacchino Ficano, Plant Leader who launched the center together with local health managers and the Red Cross. "An important result that we have achieved once again - as is our tradition - thanks to the synergy with the region. While we hope that this will not happen, in light of the effective counteractive ability that vaccines are demonstrating, the center will be able to ensure immediate action in the event of future need."

“None of this would ever have been possible without the contribution of our EHS managers at every single Italian office, to whom I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks," concluded Micheli. “Cristina Guarini in Brindisi, Carmen Scavone in Borgaretto and Cameri, Marianna Gaschino at Sangone, Vincenzo Vegnente in Pomigliano and Francesco Perri in Rivalta, together with their respective teams, have been the true, silent heroes over recent months. In addition to ensuring the operational excellence of the safety initiatives, they have demonstrated a very strong sense of responsibility in safeguarding the health of their colleagues by making it their professional and personal priority.

A view of the vaccination hub set up inside Avio Aero Pomigliano.

^{_{Cover image is courtesy of Unione Industriale Torino.}}