Laborers at work. Above, the photo of Satnam Singh
His name was Satnam Singh. He was 31 years old, with a long life ahead of him. To give dignity to that life, from India, he had chosen to come to live and work in Italy three years ago with his wife. And like many of his fellow countrymen he had settled in the Agro Pontino, in the province of Latina, where thousands of other Indian laborers of Sikh origin live who mostly work with irregular contracts and in conditions of very serious exploitation, ensuring fruit and vegetables at the markets of half of Italy. Defenseless victims of gangmastering. Future he has been reporting it for years, he did so with a long series of investigations (here is the latest) in which we documented their conditions: 14 hours and more of work a day (most often at night), wages of 3 euros an hour , less than a third of what the collective agreement provides.
Satnam arrived at the San Camillo hospital in Rome on Monday, rushed by helicopter. While working in the fields he was hooked by a plastic wrapping machine pulled by a tractor, which severed his arm and crushed his legs. Or at least, this is what the other laborers who were with him said since his employers, at the sight of the scene, ran away: they simply loaded him onto the minibus (with him his wife, also an employee of the same company, who was on board begging to call the ambulance) and took him home. They left him there, with his severed arm resting in a vegetable box, dying. At that point the alarm from the neighbors and the call to 118. An abyss of inhumanity, as well as a delay in rescue which was probably fatal: the young man died this morning due to his injuries and haemorrhages. The incident was reported by Flai Cgil Latina-Frosinone and now the prosecutor’s office of the Pontine capital has opened an investigation for negligent personal injury, failure to provide assistance and provisions regarding irregular work, in which the owner of the company already figures who Satnam worked for. That in front of the cameras he said that «it was just a slight thing, as happens with any other death at work. I told him not to go near that machine.” It remains to be verified whether the desire not to alert the emergency services is linked to the contractual irregularity or the worker’s lack of a residence permit. He,
The story immediately aroused the indignation of the political world and rekindled attention on the phenomenon of gangmastering and the exploitation of laborers bordering on slavery. In the Chamber, the opposition from Avs to the Pd, from M5s, Iv and Action immediately asked on Monday, before the death of the labourer, for information from the Minister of Labor Marina Elvira Calderone on the fight against gangmastering, defining what happened as “atrocious”. Calderone who immediately defined the affair as “a very serious and truly barbaric act which must be prosecuted in all places”. In addition to “expressing my condolences and those of the government – he assured – I also express our commitment to providing the widest possible assistance to the authorities, just as we have been doing since the early hours to ascertain the facts and ensure that those who committed them are punished. Episodes of this kind must lead institutions to be even more incisive in combating undeclared work and in promoting a modern work culture, with a view to guaranteeing dignified conditions.”
Even the senator of the Democratic Party Susanna Camusso with an urgent question addressed to the ministers Calderone and of agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, also signed by 13 other colleagues of the Democratic Party, asked to know the government’s strategy on the matter. «This episode represents a violation of fundamental human rights, human dignity and the rules relating to worker safety» commented the mayor of Latina Matilde Celentano, while the president of the Lazio Region (who will be a civil party in the trial against those responsible and will pay for the funeral), Francesco Rocca, defined it as “disconcerting, cruel and cowardly”, reiterating that “safety at work and the fight against gangmastering are our priority”.
Coldiretti calls for “severe penalties and rigorous controls that target illegal work and exploitation, bringing to light those pockets of the underground economy which also create unfair competition with regular companies.” CGIL and UIL to “intervene immediately on the issue of safety, an emergency among emergencies” and the CISL calls for “the dignity and safety of work to be guaranteed in all production sectors”. The opposition, with the Pd and M5S, speak of a “bestial pact” and a “point of no return”.
