The number of fatalities at work is rising again. In the first quarter of 2023 there was a + 3.7% compared to the same period of 2022: 196 victims against 189, with a peak of growth in the North-West, + 22.4%, "where the recovery of production activities is entailing increasingly intolerable human costs".

To draw a reasoned map on one of the most dramatic dossiers is the study of Eures and Uil "Accidents at work in Italy: incidence and risk profiles", illustrated on the occasion of the presentation of the service "100 percent support: Desk accidents at work", by Ital and Uil, in the Roman headquarters of the union in via Lucullo, which breaks down the Inail 2022-2023 numbers by macro-areas, sectors and categories.

Deaths at work in 2022

In 2022 there were three deaths at work per day, for a total of 1,090 deaths, down 10.7% compared to 2021, when fatal accidents were 1,221. The decrease, the study points out, is due "exclusively to the almost zero number of victims at work due to Covid-19, which go from 294 in 2021 to 10 in 2022". In fact, fatal accidents not related to the virus are increasing, growing by 2022.16% in 5.

Almost half of fatal accidents occur in the tertiary sector, with construction workers being the most affected. Falls from height in fact constitute 28% of the causes of death and the risk of losing one's life is multiplied by 4 among precarious and irregular workers. Following - highlights the study - the industrial sector, which absorbs 37.5% of events, and within which construction plays a particularly significant role, where 19% of deaths at work are recorded.

On the basis of the composition of the Infor.mo data, relating to the three-year period 2018-2020 projected on the cases of 2022, the risk of fatal accidents, reads the Report, stands at 10.2 deaths per 100 thousand employed workers, compared to 5.7 among self-employed workers and, above all, 3.3 among stable employees, i.e. permanent employees.

A mortality, notes the report, whose risk increases with increasing age with higher percentages among the over 65+ even if in absolute terms the largest number of victims is counted in the 55-64 age group (35.3% of the total) followed by the 45-54 age group (29.5%); The incidence of victims in the 35-44 age group (13.7%), over 64 years old (10.2%) and 25-34 years (7.6%) is lower.

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Accidents at work

Also in 2022, in total, says the Eures-Uil research research, there were 1,912 accidents at work per day, for a total of 697,773. A figure up by 25.7% on 2021. The highest accident risk is recorded among foreign workers and in the construction sector, while the overall data show an increase of 42.9% of accidents among women.

60.3% of accidents, the study finds, occur in the northern regions, 19.5% in the center and 20.3% in the south. "The growth in the number of accidents affects the entire country - we read - with the most marked increase in the South, + 35.9%, followed by the Center, + 29.4%, and Northern Italy, + 21.5%". A growth that according to Eures and Uil must be correlated "both to the dynamics of the various economic-productive sectors and to the full recovery of activities after the overcoming of the 2020-2021 measures against the pandemic".

Accidents increased by 42.9% among women, an increase equal to more than double that recorded among men, +16%. A dynamic that, the analysis explains, "appears to be related both to the significant increase in female employment in the manufacturing sector recorded in 2022, + 6.9%, and to the already reported greater presence of female workers in the sectors most affected by Covid-19, such as health and care services".

Controls and irregularities in holdings

From the Report on data relating to accidents at work in Italy, prepared by the President of Eures, Fabio Piacenti, almost seven companies out of ten inspected have irregularities and irregular workers are growing to 79.4%.

"Of the 117,608 total monitoring activities carried out, 91,505 were carried out by the INL, from whose data a particularly alarming situation emerges: taking into consideration only the defined inspections, equal to 2021,62 in 710, it appears that 62.3% of companies (39,052 in absolute terms) present irregularities", denounces
the analysis.

Again, it would be precisely those sectors that absorb the highest number of accidents at work that show higher rates of irregularity than the average value. In 2021, in fact, the irregularity index stood at 63.7% for construction and 63.1% for the tertiary sector. Industry follows, with an irregularity rate of 60.6%, while the value drops to 54.3% in the agricultural sector.

Despite the wishes of governments, the consistency of the INL inspection body, responsible for checks on safety at work, remains decidedly undersized. There are a total of 3,983 supervisory inspectors, i.e. 1 for every 1,511 companies. A critical situation that worsens, we read, if we consider the number of inspectors actually assigned to supervisory activities, quantified by the same INL in 1,600 units, one for every 3,762 registered companies.