Worker dies in accident at justice minister's holiday home

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 3 - 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. (ANSA).