In the field of workplace health and safety, the synergy between legislation and technical standards can be a determining factor in achieving its objectives.
In this sense, a virtuous example – as well as a significant innovation – is provided by the recent publication in the Official Journal of Legislative Decree 31 October 2025, n. 159 “Urgent measures for the protection of health and safety in the workplace and in the field of civil protection” .
This is a complex measure aimed at strengthening the culture of safety , increasing prevention and reducing accidents in every workplace.
Article 10 (“Provisions regarding UNI standards”) highlights two amendments to Decree 81 (the well-known Consolidated Law on Safety at Work).
The first concerns the reference to UNI EN ISO 45001:2023+A1:2024 , which replaces the reference to the British Standard OHSAS 18001:2007.
In this regard, it is worth remembering that UNI EN ISO 45001 is currently under revision: the work should be completed in 2027 with a new, updated and renewed version , precisely to adapt to a rapidly evolving context, which includes new professions, new associated risks, new scenarios.
The second new development introduced by Article 10 of Legislative Decree 159 concerns the role of UNI, which will be responsible for developing a bulletin of technical standards on health and safety at work, directly on the website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, as well as on the INAIL and UNI platforms . This strategy will therefore allow professionals, as well as companies and organizations, to easily find safety tools , facilitating their application and dissemination.
The most important innovation is the availability, on a dedicated portal, of some of the most important regulations in this area for free consultation. (Source: https://www.uni.com/ )