“It is an important day to reflect on the daily tragedy of deaths at work. A precious opportunity for reflection for trainers, corporate safety managers and employers. To introduce into the daily productive life of our country all the procedures useful for the prevention of serious and fatal accidents”.
Mauro RossatoPresident of the Vega Engineering Workplace Safety Observatory of Mestre, at the forefront of worker safety in Italy for three decades, underlines the value of World Day for Health and Safety at Work which is celebrated tomorrow, April 28, and launches an appeal to everyone.
“You can’t get to the end of each year by always counting over a thousand victims – Rossato insists – and with a mortality rate that remains practically unchanged in the last two years. It is not possible to see how workers are always protagonists of the same tragedies. Because there is one legislation well structured in our country for prevent injuries. It would be enough to apply it in a more widespread way.”
A dramatic situation for our peninsula, confirmed by the most extensive and recent statistical analysis of the Mestre Observatory. “There are no words to comment on a situation that shows no signs of changing despite the greater prominence given to these tragedies by institutions and the media but, on the contrary, according to the data, in 2023 accidents at work are increased by 1.1% compared to 2022 – explains Rossato again – and this means that workers in their daily working life they are not protected enough. On the other hand, we are witnessing a significant decrease in fatal accidents in progress compared to 2022 (-19.3%), probably a consequence of the greater use of smart working in these post-pandemic years. A comforting result, certainly, but which cannot be identified with an improvement in the safety conditions of workers in our peninsula. Among other things, unfortunately, we are aware of how many other deaths are left out of this dramatic toll. Those who belong to the underground economy.”
With a view to a more virtuous reflection and truly capable of directing the country towards a reversal of course, the Vega Engineering Workplace Safety Observatory of Mestre has been processing for years the real risk of death of workers, region by region and province by province .
“This is the mortality incidence index, i.e. the ratio of fatal accidents compared to the regional and provincial working population, the average of which in Italy at the end of 2023 is 34.6 deaths per million employed (by 35 in 2022). – says the President – This value, a true ‘workplace death risk indicator’, allows the accident phenomenon to be compared even between regions with different numbers of workers. On the basis of the incidence of fatal accidents, the Vega Observatory defines on a monthly basis the zoning of the risk of death for workers in our country which is thus described by dividing Italy into colours”.
To finish in red zone eventually in 2023, with an incidence greater than +25% compared to the national average (Im=Average incidence index, equal to 34.6 deaths at work per million workers) are: Abruzzo, Umbria, Basilicata, Puglia, Molise, Campania and Calabria. In the orange zone: Sicily and Emilia-Romagna. In the yellow zone: Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Piedmont, Veneto, Sardinia, Lombardy, Liguria and Trentino-Alto Adige. The safest regions, in the white zone, are: Lazio, Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta. And then there is an emergency that in recent years has become increasingly clear in our elaborations, that is, the one that affects the foreign workers, subject to a risk of fatal injury more than double compared to Italians. Thus, foreigners who died at work from January to December 2023 are 155 out of 799. With a risk of death at work that is more than double that of Italians; there are 65.3 deaths recorded for every million employed, compared to 31.1 Italians who lose their lives at work for every million employed.
At the same time accident reports decrease (fatal and non-fatal) by 16.1% compared to 2022 but the decreases are due to the end of the Covid emergency which had instead ‘inflated’ the 2022 data. (These and many other data are freely available on the Mestre Observatory website www.vegaengineering.com).
“We have always hoped that our studies and our statistical calculations can represent a valid knowledge and in-depth support for all those who are committed to prevention in the workplace and, above all, that they become a concrete and effective tool for protecting the safety of workers. Remembering once more, and precisely on a solemn day like April 28th – concludes Rossato – that the regulations on workplace safety in our country exist and are exhaustive. We just have to apply it. To this end, adequate and widespread training of workers and also of employers is needed; without forgetting the deterrent value of inspections and sanctions. Health and safety at work cannot be considered costs, but rather an investment. It is essential that Italy emerges from the torpor of insecurity which immobilizes virtuous prevention plans and which continues to perpetuate the tragedy year after year. Because the ineptitude and ignorance of those who should be responsible for the protection of workers then translate into serious and, sometimes, fatal accidents.”
