“The investigations into work and safety irregularities in the agricultural sector in Puglia affected only 3% of companies with employees in 2023. A now consolidated result which on the one hand demonstrates the need to strengthen the inspection bodies, on the other unfortunately leaves the control of the State to almost randomness and therefore the possibility of acting in defiance of the rules“. This is what the general secretary of the Flai CGIL of Puglia, Antonio Gagliardi, states in relation to the data released by the National Labor Inspectorate on investigations and checks conducted last year in the country’s production sectors.
In Puglia, 7923 inspections were carried out in companies, to which 1010 checks and assessments were added. 4936 inspections concerned labor and social legislation, 2711 health and safety and finally 267 road transport.
Inspections in companies in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors were 894, of which 668 concerned compliance with contracts, 223 safety and 2 road transport. There were 453 irregular inspections, or 53.1% of the total.
“It is no consolation at all that industry, construction and the tertiary sector are worse off than agriculture, all with over 75% irregularities – underlines Gagliardi – However, one company in two violates the rules but there are other data that should make us reflect. With this incidence of controls, a production activity in Puglia expects to have an inspection every 33 years. A sort of safe conduct to circumvent the rules. It must also be said that inspections often also arise from complaints from workers and unions. Another unlikely report sees the 27 thousand agricultural companies that hire employees operating with an average of 5 employees, as confirmed by the fact that 152 thousand agricultural workers in Puglia were registered in the INPS registry lists last year. In a reality where there are ongoing phenomena (Istat tells us) of an increase in agricultural surface area per company, net of mechanization processes, this seems unlikely to us, as it hides so much black and shadow“.
The workers to whom the ascertained irregularities refer were 3285, of these 1020 connected to gang-mastering and exploitation phenomena, and 591 discovered to be working totally illegally. “An estimate of 18% in the black economy which, if projected onto the total workers included in the INPS registry lists, would bring the total figure of black workers to 30 thousand workers – continues the general secretary of Flai Cgil Puglia – Violations of health and safety prevention regulations were found for 663 workers. We remind you that last year there were over 2200 accident reports in the agricultural sector and 16 fatal accidents“.
For Flai Cgil Puglia “an agricultural system that should be the flagship of the regional economy, connected to quality products and brands recognized throughout the world, cannot continue to think of competing by exploiting work and putting people’s health and lives at risk. Our requests are always the same but remain unheard: increase the staffing of the bodies responsible for inspections, rewrite rules that push workers from outside Europe into illegality and bring together those who are already present and have been working for years in the agricultural sector in Italy, build escape routes from the gangmaster system through real reception, transport services, strengthening of public intervention in labor intermediation. We should all work (unions, businesses, institutions) to innovate the agri-food system, so that it is a guarantee of collective well-being, considering that circumventions and violations take away resources in terms of wages from workers but also cause damage to the treasury“.
