The terrible count of deaths at work in Campania does not stop. In our region two victims within a few hours of each other.
Yesterday in Cancello ed Arnone, in the Caserta area, Raffaele Boemio, 62 years old originally from Afragola, lost his life. Stuck in the cement mixer, he died on the side of the road in Cancello and Arnone, in the Caserta area. He was working for a company contracted to Open Fiber when, for reasons which the police are investigating, his feet got stuck in the machinery, which crushed him.
In the afternoon another tragedy, this time in Scafati in the province of Salerno. The victim is a young 22-year-old worker, crushed by the load of a pulley that came loose. He was working on a construction site in via Melchiade.
A steel plate detached fatally, rescue efforts were useless. The police are investigating the accident.
Vincenzo Maio, general secretary of Fillea Cgil Campania, spoke on the matter: “We have now reached seven deaths since last May 1st. A May 1st dedicated to safety in the workplace which paradoxically here in Campania represented a change of pace, a resurgence unprecedented. 7 deaths in just 12 working days, a daily average of more than two on 2 May (1 Lettere and 1 Casalnuovo) – 1 on 8 May (Carinaro) – 1 on 14 May (Naples) – 1 on 15th. May (Castellamare di S.) – 1 on 16 May (Cancello and Arnone) – 1 on 17 May (Scafati) 57 and 60 years on 2 May – 54 years on 8 May – 58 years on 14 May – 28 years on May 15th – 62 years old on May 16th – 21 years old on May 17th. It has become heartbreaking and humiliating to even keep the data updated – writes Maio. In the face of repeated family tragedies, even writing a press release takes on a form of non-respect, just done because the silence is becoming so deafening that it hurts so much, too much. The silence of the institutions hurts, the silence of civil society hurts, the silence of this everyday life that now absorbs and digests everything hurts. Unfortunately, commemorations are no longer able to break the habit into which public opinion has fallen and are often seen as inappropriate, who knows if because they are unable to affect the dynamics of the events or because they remind everyone of the events that happen. What is certain is that if not even the dead can affect the sensitivity of all of us, well then we are on a dangerous edge where it would be appropriate and necessary to stop and reflect. The construction sector, at least here in Campania, continues to represent the most exposed, certainly not due to the huge funding that has invested the sector, but rather due to the increasingly suffocating and heavy workloads, due to the lack of training and information for workers in work processes, due to an increasingly frantic search for business profits that companies often pass on to their workers and production processes. The State, in all its forms and branches overall, seems not to see what happens every day in the world of work. The cultural decadence into which the country of Italy has fallen has reached the alert level beyond which there is only barbarism. How many times has it been reiterated, even by the highest institutional positions, that safety is not a procedure, but a culture? But if this is the case, then this culture should be assumed and spread from the early stages of citizen training, from primary and secondary schools first, and then be further consolidated in training and professionalization paths afterwards. But culture is also built by talking about deaths at work, by adopting rules that safeguard and protect those affected by such disasters. If anything, by issuing rules that penalize those who systematically violate procedures and laws and by regulating a job market that is easily accessible to companies and entrepreneurs who adopt sometimes delinquent behavior. But above all by sanctioning those who turn a blind eye in the application of the regulations issued and, why not, with a legislature that purifies the job market of last-minute visitors. Workers and the world of work today are abandoned to their fate, the growing number of accidents and deaths at work and for work are clear evidence of this. The institutes responsible for control, inspections and visits to workplaces now make the lack of personnel an alibi for their inefficiencies and responsibilities, net of the structural deficiencies well known to all of us. The local and regional administrations make the lack of funds, and in some respects, especially here in the south, also the lack of personnel, the reasons for the impossibility of intervention, while the national government places its responsibilities on those who have managed the country until today, but their inertia is evident to everyone. The business system points the finger at a system of rules that is cumbersome and difficult to apply, given the many procedures it contains, and professional associations, of any order and degree, have always considered themselves a non-integral part of procedures and responsibilities, in as far as they are responsible for safety planning (?), while it is the fault of others if it is not correctly implemented, meanwhile in the dispute between companies and professionals the worker pays the bill. Politics, when going well, deals with the issue only in electoral campaigns and the union, too often powerless in the face of family tragedies, especially because families withdraw into a respectable silence, sometimes, if not always, the result of corporate pressure, it cannot alone make an impact on the safety culture that we should all aim for. This is the desolate picture of the topic of safety in the workplace, sometimes accompanied by expressions that border on the ridiculous, such as when an accident, whether serious or fatal, is considered an inevitable price to pay for certain types of work or workers who are not inclined to compliance with the rules. The liberalization of cascading and therefore uncontrollable subcontracts has opened the door even further to procedures that are not very virtuous and respectful of the rules for the protection of workers, starting with those on safety. We cannot afford to rely on chance or fate, the institutions must first of all take responsibility for more stringent control and sanctions. Companies must be monitored and certified in terms of safety: anyone who does not have the necessary requirements must be excluded from the sector. In companies where serious injuries or deaths occur, the rights of the workers involved and their heirs must be safeguarded as a priority, including through the preventive seizure of assets until the processes for fair compensation are closed. The introduction of the crime of workplace homicide is necessary, at least on a par with that envisaged for road homicides. Just as the establishment of a special power of attorney for accidents at work, as well as the joint and several liability of the client, seems no longer to be postponed. The institutions and contracting authorities, already at the time of the tender notice, must emphasize the safety aspect and accept in advance the company’s history in terms of accidents, providing for penalizing criteria for those that are less than virtuous. Finally, a season of synergistic collaboration must be opened with all the subjects in the field, INAIL, INPS, ASL, INL, law enforcement agencies, including the social partners and the bilateral bodies connected to them, to reach as many workplaces as possible, giving body and legs to the many regulations issued and protocols signed. We must stop using the mask of dismay at every life that is broken and wear that of responsibility to prevent lives from being broken again.”
