Managers in cemeteries: all the answers.
Responsibilities and competences in cemetery services.
Who is the owner of cemetery services?
All cemetery operations (burials, inhumations, burials, exhumations, extumations, etc.) constitute a public service under the responsibility of the municipality.
Who can perform cemetery burial services?
Construction companies (registered with the specific activity code at the Chamber of Commerce) authorised to perform cemetery and burial services - whose employees are in possession of the relevant training certificates - and which are entrusted with cemetery services following a public tender (carried out in accordance with the procedures set out in the Public Contracts Code, Legislative Decree 50/2016 - for amounts exceeding 150,000 euro, SOA registration is also required).
Can funeral parlours perform cemetery burial services?
No. The performance of this service does not fall within the competence of Funeral Companies. Funeral parlours have a public security authorisation for Business Agencies under Art. 115 T.U.LL.P.S.. They are commercial enterprises authorised to provide funeral services and the sale of grave goods (coffins, coverings, decorations, posters, transport services, ceremonies), but they cannot provide services that are public services and building services. If a funeral company is also a Construction Company (registered with the relevant activity code at the Chamber of Commerce), it may provide cemetery and burial services with the prescriptions and indications set out in the previous point.
What happens in the event of an accident?
In the event of incidents involving:
- cemetery operators (municipal or contractor employees);
- funeral workers;
- workers carrying out construction, restoration, maintenance work;
the responsibility lies with the Mayor or Head of the Security Service.
The person in charge is obliged to prepare a Safety Plan (PSC, POS, DUVRI, etc.), which assesses risk situations, reduces risks (including those from interference), and indicates all the operations to be followed to ensure safety during burial, maintenance, and cleaning activities, as well as the safety of visitors.
How are 'private' spaces considered?
Private chapels, tombs, niches, ossuaries and burial spaces in the ground are municipal property, granted for private use for a fixed period. Within the cemetery spaces, the safety regulations governing common spaces and other places are therefore the same.
What behaviour needs to be corrected?
Often, in smaller municipalities, cemetery services are not properly contracted out and the number of employees assigned to cemetery tasks is rather limited. It is customary to allow family members of the deceased or funeral workers to collaborate in cemetery operations (e.g. to introduce the coffin into the niche). This is seen as a gesture of care, but in reality it is a sign of ineffective public management.
Cemetery services, following law no. 26/2001, are considered a public service on demand and are therefore of economic importance. Ineffective management limits revenue that could be used to improve cemetery management, maintenance, and the provision of free services (burials of indigents, cemetery custody) as well as burdening the mayors or safety officers in terms of liability, including criminal liability.
