4 August 2006

The pardon and crimes against workers

Included in the pardon law there were some crimes against workers.
This is a precise and serious decision taken by a parliamentary majority in relation to the Italian people.

It is a decision that is seen against the trend of a growing increase in fatal accidents at work.
The Trades Unions have written a communication that I’m publishing here.

Pardon, accidents at work.
Cgil Cisl Uil: A serious non-exclusion from the measures relating to crimes against workers. “The Trades Union considers to be particularly serious the non-exclusion from the measures relating to crimes against workers”. This is stated in a joint declaration of the Cgil Cisl Uil confederation secretaries Paola Agnello Modica, Renzo Bellini, and Paolo Carcassi.
”The measures taken in relation to the pardon” – the three Union leaders explain – “that reduces by three years the sentences arranged for the crimes committed before 2 May 2006, gives a massive discount to the sentence even for violation of the laws in relation to health and safety at work (beyond those already covered for substantial and procedural reasons like plea-bargaining and fast-track trials).” They add: “Considering that culpable homicide from accidents at work and originating from professional activity are not penalised with sentences greater than those covered by the pardon, this implies in fact that this type of crime will in the vast majority of cases, remain unpunished. In an analogous way for the monetary penalties, excluding those over 10,000 Euro, the measures seem to be concerned in a particular way with the crimes committed against the laws protecting the health and safety of workers. When considering those workers suffering from pathologies that result from asbestos, for example, with the cancellation of the sentence, they risk even the concrete possibility of not receiving compensation.”

“In recent days, there is a continued repetition of accidents at work” – they reveal – “with a frequency and a seriousness that at the moment is marking out the current year with a particularly negative trend. This highlights the strident contradiction between the measures just taken by the government and the need for the country to adopt a framework of well-matured measures. These need to eliminate the failings and the incoherences of the legislation and the institutional structures that are hindering the forces working to stop this phenomenon.”

It’s in this field that Cgil Cisl Uil repeat that “sanctions and vigilance guarantee the operation of the norms, but all the same recognising that prevention is much more efficacious than repression. They intend to continue to work in a committed way over the coming months with proposals that are articulated and constructed as far as possible with the employers’ associations, in a serious engagement with the Government and with the competent institutions. We ask all these institutions to give an unequivocal expression of political will and concrete engagement, in a unified vision that overcomes the current division of competencies and responsibilities.” Agnello Modica, Bellini, Carcassi conclude: “At the same time Cgil Cisl Uil are asking for a similar unequivocal commitment from the Government and the world of the employers. In all workplaces we want commitment for the application of the norms laid down in relevant legislation and in contracts. Just this would reduce in a significant way accidents and illnesses resulting from work.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice