I hereby acknowledge receipt of, and publish, a letter from Marco Bazzoni, worker representative for workplace safety.
"The workplace killings at Thyssenkrupp in Turin are still very much in all our thoughts. While I would have expected the Prodi Government to take some sort of concrete action, this has unfortunately not been the case.
On Tuesday 18 December, 5 workers died within the space of a few hours (a worker at the Fiat factory in Melfi, a 22-year old worker in Rome, a 50-year old worker in Alessandria, a 55-year old worker in Venice and a 37-year old carpenter in Modena). Yesterday saw the death of Rosario Rodinò, the sixth worker who suffered severe burns at the Thyssenkrupp plant in Turin. He was only 26 years old!!! I ask myself: what more needs to happen before the Prodi Government takes some sort of concrete action in order to put a stop to fatalities in the workplace?
Following the deaths at Thyssenkrupp, both the Labour Minister, Cesare Damiano, and Prime Minister Romano Prodi have done nothing other than reiterate that there are laws in place and that all that is required is to ensure that these laws are respected. I am fully in agreement with this, however, the real problem is something else: there is a lack of people to ensure such compliance. The real problem, just in case the Government has not yet realised this, is that there are only 1950 Asl accident prevention officers to cover the whole of Italy, in order to enforce workplace safety in 5 million companies requiring inspection. It is estimated that, should they inspect all of the companies with the available personnel, each company would be inspected only once every 33 years. So, what do the companies have to fear with regard to penalties when there is no one around to carry out inspections? Why don’t we simply reverse the freeze on new appointments, so that additional safety officers can be employed in order to increase the number of workplace inspections?
On 17 December it was announced that Campania Regional Premier Bassolino and Healthcare Councillor Montemarano had adopted a regional council resolution aimed at employing another 200 workplace safety inspectors. The news would appear to be great, except that the resolution provides for the retraining of healthcare staff (how this is to be done is still completely unknown), who would then be reassigned to Safety Inspection duties, without any concern for issues such as the competence, professionalism, suitability and effectiveness of the interventions and to the dismay of all the students reading for their degrees in accident prevention. And to think that, just a few hours ago, the Chamber and the Government approved the measures aimed at reversing the freeze on the engagement of Accident Prevention Officers. I am therefore obliged to stand firmly behind the call by the “AITeP” (Italian Workplace Accident Prevention Officers Association) to increase the number of Safety Inspectors in Campania by 200, and no to "simply" retraining existing staff. We want to see the employment of some real Accident Prevention Officers.
Furthermore, I would dearly like to put a stop to the practice of agreeing to appoint additional safety inspectors only after a worker is killed or injured in the workplace, once and for all. The workplace inspectors have only a minor appointment as regards workplace safety on site (DPCM 1997). And that’s it. Safety inspections are the domain of the Asl (Law 833/78). We have said this on so many previous occasions that even the walls have understood, but apparently not the Prodi Government.
In addition, I would also like the Government to be clear on one issue: of these 300 labour inspectors, only 75, and I repeat, only 75 are actual workplace safety inspectors charged with carrying out workplace safety inspections on site, while the remaining 225 are charged with enforcing contribution payments, in other words, dealing with the primary function of the Regional and Provincial labour Directorates. It is obvious that inspections alone are not enough to resolve the problem of workplace safety and that much more is required, however, let’s start with these in the meantime.
In conclusion, I appeal to the journalists to spread the word and to make it clear, once and for all, who is actually responsible for carrying out workplace safety inspections. And please, don’t turn the spotlight away from the issue of workplace safety. We need to keep the attention focussed on this issue, now more than ever before.