A 57-year-old Tunisian fisherman who
lived in Calabria for 20 years was crushed to death by a sail
winch aboard his boat off Punto Stilo in the latest in a spate
of workplace accident fatalities in Italy Friday.
Kamel Kaffaf was the owner of the trawler, Iole.
The accident took place near Monasterace, in the Locride area.
Italy is in the middle of a spate of workplace fatalities.
Three more fatal workplace accidents occurred in Italy on
February 4 as a worker fell to his death from scaffolding near
Venice, a farmer was crushed to death by a tractor that
overturned near Mantua, and a 57-year-old worker was struck on
the head by a wind-blown roof panel at Sora near
Frosinone between Rome and Naples.
The fatalities were the latest in a shocking wave of
workplace accident deaths in Italy that saw 1,221 perish last
year and which has spurred government action.
Such deaths are a national tragedy, Justice Minister Marta
Cartabia said on October 22.
She said the government had intervened by increasing the number
of inspectors and checks, but a new law on administrative
responsibility would be even more useful in stopping the rash of
fatalities.
Premier Mario Draghi said on October 17 that workplace safety
norms recently approved by the government sent the "unequivocal
signal that you cannot save (money) at the expense of workers'
lives" after the spate continued with four more deaths in one
day.
"As the government, we committed ourselves to doing everything
possible to prevent these episodes happening again," Draghi
said.
"The norms are the realisation of this promise. We are
increasing the numbers of workplace inspectors, we are
stiffening sanctions, we are boosting computerization to improve
checks."
Despite this, as the deaths continued, Italy's big three
trade-union confederations, CGIL, CISL and UIL, held a major
demonstration in Rome in mid-December to demand
urgent action on health and safety to stem the tide of deaths.
The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death
of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana
D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3.
Turin held a day of mourning on December 21 for three workers
who died when a large crane collapsed in the northern city the
previous weekend.
Re-elected President Sergio Mattarella said in his inaugural
address recently that such deaths must stop, while Pope Francis
has also joined the chorus against the phenomenon.
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