There were four deaths at work in Basilicata in the first five months of 2024. The Uil, based on data provided by Inail, reported the worsening of the situation of safety at work and the health of workers themselves in recent years. According to the study, in five months in Basilicata there were 4 deaths (2 in the workplace 2 in itinere) and reports for occupational diseases increased by 50%. The increase in occupational diseases in Basilicata requires particular attention: in the first five months of 2024 there were 1657 reports (994 in the province of Potenza and 663 in the province of Matera) and involved 1052 male and 606 female workers. By sector, industry and services (988) reports are in first place, followed by public employment (470) and agriculture (199). The most affected age groups: 55-59 years with 197 reports and 50-54 years with 193.
Several problems were encountered in the first 5 months of 2024, which recorded performances at a national level, in some cases even serious: reports of accidents at work were 251,132, +2.1% on 2023; accidents that caused victims were 369, +3.1%; cases of occupational diseases reported were almost 39 thousand, +24% on 2023
The data for occupational diseases is the one that has increased the most compared to 2022. In two years, the growth was 50%. However, this data could still be influenced by the lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, during the period between 2020 and 2022, the information on accidents and occupational diseases was strongly altered by the pandemic circumstances. In 2022, for example, some restrictions were still in place. For example, remote working was still very widespread, which could have contributed to a particularly low figure in reported diseases simply due to the lower presence of people in the workplace. 55 thousand deaths in 35 years: “We need a special prosecutor’s office”
“Over the last 10 years, the average has been almost 1,200 victims per year”. This is the complaint that emerges from the study curated by Uil and written by Devitalaw ‘The work that kills, the impunity massacre’, where it is recalled that according to the latest data published by Inail, “in 2023 alone, out of 585,356 total reports, 1,041 concerned fatal accidents” and “in the first 3 months of 2024, 145,130 accident reports have already been filed (+0.38% compared to the first quarter of 2023) and 191 deaths have already been recorded”. In numbers, “91.7% of fatal cases involved men” and almost half of the cases involved the 50-64 age group of workers, even if during 2023 “the incidence in the under-20 age group increased, with an increase of 11.7%: from 73,862 to 82,493 cases”, the union reiterates. The incidence of fatal cases involving foreigners was also high: “over 65% of fatal accidents that occurred at work in 2023, obviously considering only regular workers”.
“We need to establish a special national prosecutor’s office capable of establishing and speeding up trials, which too often risk being time-barred. In Latina, the vehicle that caused the fatal accident involving Satnam Singh was seized. We say that the company should be seized and the owner should be put in prison,” says UIL secretary Pierpaolo Bombardieri.
The latest serious case of death at work, that of the laborer Satnam Singh, has brought attention back to the working conditions of foreigners in Italy. The incidence of fatal cases on reported accidents is much higher when the person involved is a non-Italian worker. Agriculture in particular has recorded some worrying data at the beginning of 2024, with an increase in deaths at work. However, the primary sector is not the riskiest for workers. The primacy goes to industry and services, with 312 fatal cases against 40 in agriculture. 17 deaths that Inail reveals in the context of the “State Account”.
