LATINA – “This morning I presented a question to President Rocca and councilor Schiboni to understand what actions the Lazio Region is implementing to combat irregular work and the exploitation of workers in agriculture”. So in a note there regional councilor of the Democratic Party Marta Bonafonipresident of the XII “Transparency and Advertising” Commission, who decided to undertake this political initiative following the latest news of the very serious accident at work involving Latina an agricultural worker of Indian nationality, “dumped” onto the street after losing a limb, instead of being helped.
“The presence of gangmastering and exploitation mechanisms in agriculture are also demonstrated by the alarming data released by the National Labor Inspectorate, which in 2023 alone, compared to only 222 checks carried out on agricultural companies in Lazio, recorded an irregularity rate of 64.5%. Let’s also not forget that an investigation by the Frosinone environmental and forestry police investigative unit recently led to the suspension from service of a manager of the Lazio Region for alleged corruption in the management of funds for agricultural companies and that as part of the same investigation – for which a national parliamentarian is also under investigation – disconcerting episodes emerged, with laborers forced to perform ‘Roman salutes’ in front of busts and effigies of Mussolini” – explains councilor Bonafoni again.
And he concludes: “Everyone facts that require a prompt response and concrete actions from the institutions. Also for this reason, in the past legislature we strongly wanted and approved a law, n. 18 of 2019, which concretely identifies measures to combat unacceptable exploitation phenomena that are still too widespread in our territory. It is precisely to understand what the Rocca Administration is doing to implement that law, that the question presented asks which information campaigns have been promoted in recent months and what actions have been implemented to encourage greater coordination and exchange with the bodies responsible for supervision and control. In the end, we want to understand how the Region is monitoring the appropriate management of funds in the agricultural sector”.
“We are horrified by what happened. It’s shocking, but it is only the tip of the iceberg of a widespread and well-known phenomenon of labor exploitation in agriculture. Not enough is being done to combat the plague of gangmastering. Yet the laws are there.” The provincial secretary of the Democratic Party, Omar Sarubbo, also spoke on the incident. and the provincial manager of employment policies for the Democratic Party, Paolo Bovieri comment on the news of the serious accident at work which yesterday involved an agricultural worker of Indian nationality in Latina, abandoned on the street after losing a limb instead of being helped.
“Unfortunately it is not an isolated event. The gangmaster checks tens of thousands of laborers throughout Italy every year, workers who are victims of some unscrupulous entrepreneurs and of serious forms of exploitation. The legislative instruments exist. Let’s think about national law 199/2016 and regional law 18/2019 “Provisions to combat the phenomenon of irregular work or exploitation of workers in agriculture”. With the latter we have activated pilot and experimental actions right in our province, which is among the Italian areas at greatest risk. This is thanks to the important activism of the former councilors of the Zingaretti council, Enrica Onorati and Claudio Di Berardino” -sOttolineano Sarubbo and Bovieri.
“While waiting for the investigators’ investigations to ascertain the responsibilities of those involved in this horrible affair” – they continue – “we contacted our deputy, Matteo Orfini, and our regional councilor, Salvatore La Penna: both immediately took action to present questions and motions in the appropriate offices. It is important to understand what actions and funding the Government and the Region are putting in place to implement and finance all the measures envisaged by these regulations to combat any current and unacceptable form of slavery and to prevent these regulatory instruments from remaining a dead letter, as often happens in our country”.
“To the local authorities of the territory – Sarubbo and Bovieri conclude – we ask for the effort to go beyond the predictable declarations of circumstance and contribute actively with one’s own initiatives”.
