A foreign worker aged around 40 died
crushed by a girder on the building site of the second home of
Justice Minister Marta Cartabia at Ollomont near Aosta on
Tuesday, the latest in a long string of workplace accident
deaths in Italy.
"I am shocked and pained by the accident at my mountain home,"
said the minister, who has been among the minister at the
forefront of the battle to stem the tide of deaths.
Four other workers died on the job last week including one at
the foreign ministry in Rome.
The government has taken several steps to try to stem the tide
of deaths but the spate, which grabbed public attention a year
ago with the death of a 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old
boy, Luana D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on
May 3, 2021, has continued unabated.
The recent fatalities were the latest in a shocking wave of
workplace accident deaths in Italy that saw 1,221 perish last
year and which has spurred government action.
Such deaths are a national tragedy, Cartabia said on October
22.
She said the government had intervened by increasing the number
of inspectors and checks, but a new law on administrative
responsibility would be even more useful in stopping the rash of
fatalities.
Premier Mario Draghi said on October 17 that workplace safety
norms recently approved by the government sent the "unequivocal
signal that you cannot save (money) at the expense of workers'
lives" after the spate continued with four more deaths in one
day.
"As the government, we committed ourselves to doing
everything possible to prevent these episodes happening again,"
Draghi said.
"The norms are the realisation of this promise. We are
increasing the numbers of workplace inspectors, we are
stiffening sanctions, we are boosting computerization to improve
checks."
Despite this, as the deaths continued, Italy's big three
trade-union confederations, CGIL, CISL and UIL, held a major
demonstration in Rome in mid-December to demand further urgent
action on health and safety to stem the tide of fatalities.
Turin held a day of mourning on December 21 for three workers
who died when a large crane collapsed in the northern city the
previous weekend.
Re-elected President Sergio Mattarella said in his inaugural
address in February that such deaths must stop, while Pope
Francis has also joined the chorus against the phenomenon.
The safety and dignity of workers boost the quality of work
done, Francis tweeted ahead of the May 1 Labour Day holiday last
Thursday.
"Working safely allows everyone to express the best of
themselves while earning their daily bread. The more we take
care of the dignity of work, the more certain we are that the
quality and beauty of the work carried out will increase,"
Francis tweeted at @Pontifex.
The number of workplace accident deaths in Italy rose 2.2% in
the first quarter of 2022, accident insurance agency INAIL said
last Thursday.
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