Workplace accident deaths down 10.7% last year

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 31 - Italian workplace accident deaths actually fell 10.7% to 1,090 last year despite media and union reports of a rising toll, workplace accident insurance agency INAIL reported Tuesday.
    But all accidents rose by 25.7% to 687,773, INAIL said.
    And the fall in deaths was largely linked to a decrease in COVID related fatalities, the agency said.
    There was also an increase in reported occupational diseases, which were 60,774 (+9.9%).
    INAIL said the increase in accident reports overall was "due in part to the higher number of reports from Covid-19 and partly to the growth in traditional accidents, while the decrease in fatalities was "due to the significantly lower weight of infectious deaths, which is counterbalanced, however, by a concomitant increase in fatalities in transit." The perceive spate of accidental deaths in the workplace has spurred government action but has continued unabated.
    Trade unions say it has now reached one a day. (ANSA).