ROME. Work continues to die. Worse: in the last quarter the deaths have increased, albeit in the face of a stable number of injuries. According to the Inail balance between January and April of this year: there were 171,870 reports of accidents (-0.3% compared to the same period in 2020), 306 of which, however, with a fatal outcome (+ 9.3% ). The Institute specifies that the “open data” published are provisional and their comparison requires caution, but the numbers say that diseases of professional origin are also increasing, 18,629 (+ 26.1%) in the same period January-April.
The monthly data are strongly influenced by the coronavirus emergency: it is no coincidence that the Ateco “Health and social assistance” sector still stands out among the economic sectors for the number of events, which however presents a 25% decrease in accidents at work compared to the same period of 2020.
The comparison between men and women
It must be said that the slight decline in reports of accidents at work to Inail that emerges from the comparison of the first four months of 2020 and 2021 is linked only to the female component, which records a -10.3% (from 74,878 to 67,155 reports), while the male one shows an increase of 7.5% (from 97,441 to 104,715). The decrease affected Italian workers (-1.6%) and EU workers (-2.0%), as opposed to non-EU workers (+ 9.7%). The analysis by age group shows decreases only among the under 20s (-31.5%) and in the 40-54 age group (-1.5%), with increases for those between 20 and 39 years (+ 9.6%) and among the over 55 (+ 4.0%).
The map of the regions
The territorial analysis shows a decrease in complaints only in the North-West (-13.5%), as opposed to the Islands (+ 8.4%), the South (+ 7.1%), the Center (+6, 5%) and the North-East (+ 6.3%). Among the regions, the greatest percentage decreases are those of Valle d’Aosta, the Autonomous Province of Trento, Piedmont and Lombardy, while the most consistent percentage increases were recorded in Molise, Basilicata and Campania. The slight decline that emerges from the comparison of the first four months of 2020 and 2021 is linked only to the female component, which records a -10.3% (from 74,878 to 67,155 complaints), while the male component shows an increase of 7.5% ( from 97.441 to 104.715). The decrease affected Italian workers (-1.6%) and EU workers (-2.0%), as opposed to non-EU workers (+ 9.7%). The analysis by age group shows decreases only among the under 20s (-31.5%) and in the 40-54 age group (-1.5%), with increases for those between 20 and 39 years (+ 9.6%) and among the over 55 (+ 4.0%).
Sit-in throughout Italy
“#Fermiamolastrageneiluoghidilavoro” is the slogan chosen by the trade unions for the protest sit-ins underway throughout Italy to draw attention to safety in the workplace. In Taranto, the presidium of CGIL, CISL and UIL is underway this morning under the Prefecture. “It is a massacre – the trade union organizations observe – which manifests itself dramatically as the result of policies that cut funding for the recruitment of personnel at the bodies in charge of controls and favor the failure to comply with the rules on safety in the workplace, up to attempts to deconstruct the procurement system ».
A fatal accident at work occurred in Taranto on 29 April. The 49-year-old Natalino Albano of the Peyrani company lost his life after falling on the quay while loading wind turbines on a ship at the IV Prong of the port. «Before him – the trade unions add – the names and surnames of people who died in the workplace are the vivid testimony of a problem that in the country is still unable to be solved. 185 (given in the first quarter of 2021) have died since the beginning of the year in Italy. And next to those crosses, there are the gruesome and often faceless statistics of thousands of injured, even seriously, who have put their lives at risk for a job that for many young people is increasingly precarious and less secure ». The regional secretariats of CGIL, CISL and UIL will deliver to the Prefect of Taranto, Demetrio Martino, the document drawn up at national level relating to a “Pact for safety and health in the workplace” between trade unions and employers’ associations.
Different – today and tomorrow – the demonstrations promoted throughout Italy, all united by the single cry: “Stop the deaths at work”.