Last year was black. And this is not a rhetorical device. Between construction sites, factories, farms and roads the complaints of accidents in the Brescia workplace there were 15,280 in twelve months. An average of 42 wounded per day, almost two per hour. It means that between the time these lines were written and when they arrived online, another 22 workers ended up in hospital. A missing helmet, a badly attached rope, a faulty machine, a distraction, a training course done only on paper. The consequences can be devastating. And therefore lives turned upside down, families ruined, bodies devastated and minds clouded by depression and a thousand problems – new, unprecedented, often insurmountable.
Of work not only do you die, you can also get sick from work. And then there they are there have been 40 victims from January 1, 2022 to today; although according to Inail data the figure even doubles (also considering deaths before or after work), with 38 crosses last year alone. The emergency in the province is such that, if in 2023 there were on average 34.6 deaths per million employed throughout Italy (with an increase of 1.1% compared to the previous year), the Brescia area counted as many as 55 fatal accidents per million workers. A figure that places Brescia in first place among the provinces where work has cost the most in terms of lives lost in Lombardy.
The budget
«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». Speaking is Mauro Rossato, president of the Vega Engineering Workplace Safety Observatory of Mestre – which for thirty years has been calculating the real risk of death of workers, by region and province. Even deaths can be disguised. And the same, to an even greater extent, happens for accidents: small or large – thousands of them are omitted throughout Italy every year, according to the unions that denounce the phenomenon.
On World Day for Health and Safety at Work, the Observatory’s appeal is for them to be done respect the rules that already exist. Because we don’t need new ones. «The regulations on workplace safety in our country exist and are exhaustive. We just have to apply it. – continues Rossato -. To this end, an adequate e widespread training of workers and also of employers of work; 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.”
Prevention
The one who has been involved in the area for years is Anmil, the association of those who have been mutilated while working. «Something doesn’t work about the method of doing safety and prevention – explains Roberto Valentini, president of Anmil Brescia -: training courses are often quizzes that leave little to the workers. But employers, especially small companies, they need to be more controlled». Anmil’s commitment to Brescia is constant, starting from the schools: «As Anmil we meet students from professional institutes in the Brescia area. We try to bear our testimony and we notice that when we enter schools and companies we manage to raise awareness on the topic.”
Meanwhile, Ats Brescia is also joining today, hoping to promote the culture of prevention and safety in the workplace. «Health and safety are fundamental rights: guaranteeing adequate health conditions in the workplace to prevent and combat the onset of occupational diseases and the occurrence of accidents represents the cornerstone of the health promotion and prevention activities carried out by Ats Brescia ».
Even the Patronato Acli of Brescia joins in a chorus that resembles a cry of alarm. And he relaunches the appeal to use existing resources in a structural way. «The latest accidents at work, such as the one on the construction site in Florence (in which 5 workers died, four of whom were residents of the Brescia area, ed.) and in Suviana hydroelectric power plant, they must not only discourage us – explains Paolo Ricotti, president of the Acli Patronato -, but rather make us become even more aware that we can only win the challenge by working as a team”. In three days, work and its value will be celebrated throughout Italy. A job that – despite the efforts of recent years – sometimes ennobles man, but sometimes debilitates him. This is why every May 1st is now a war bulletin. The two anniversaries – the one that pays homage to man’s spirit of achievement and that of today which highlights its critical issues – are now closely linked.
