Since the beginning of the year, Calabria has counted more than one workplace death every 15 days. Just a few hours ago, the death of a 31-year-old mechanic, crushed under the weight of the car he was working on. A dramatic toll to which must be added the dozens of injured.
The location of Mariaelena Senesegeneral secretary of UIL Calabria, is clear: «It’s a chilling count, it’s a continuous drama that tears families apart. While Europe builds models to protect the health and safety of workers, Italy and – alas – especially Calabria do not really deal with an issue whose social impact is devastating».
Senese: “A single training portal is needed
The UIL has been involved in the national “Zero deaths at work” campaign for years. In Calabria, in addition to awareness-raising initiatives, the union has already presented concrete proposals and tried to stimulate political action in the Region. However, despite the requests relating to the need to make the Regional Coordination Committee of prevention and supervision activities relating to health and safety at work operational, there has been no practical feedback for months: «We believe it is necessary to create a single regional training portal, capable of digitally certifying each training path and making each certificate immediately accessible and verifiable during inspection activities. Safety training – explains Senese again – it must be real, traceable and verifiable, not simply the issuing of a certificate. It must become concrete prevention, because in terms of safety it is not enough to certify, we must guarantee skills capable of saving lives».
Request for a three-year safety plan
To these tools, UIL Calabria now supports a broader motion, which aims to become the union’s central political proposal on workplace safety in Calabria: bringing the European principle of Vision Zero to the region, already adopted by the European Commission in the EU strategic framework 2021-2027: «The recently approved amendment to the regional law on worker safety was not preceded by a process of discussion with the trade unions. We would have brought our contribution as the intention to transform the European Vision Zero into a “Vision Zero Calabria”: a regional law that brings that principle to the territory, applying it to worker safety through operational, controllable and measurable tools» clarifies the secretary.
Among the provisions of the proposal put forward by UIL Calabria, a three-year safety plan with measurable objectives by sector; a single database between INAIL, ASP, Inspectorate, Region and bilateral bodies to immediately identify risks; a business risk index to target controls; rewards in procurement for those who invest in safety, stricter rules for those who violate the rules; prevention technologies also with AI; a mandatory regional climate risk protocol; strengthening the role of the workers’ safety representative, providing for a regional system for reporting risk situations and a structured role for the social partners in monitoring the Plan Vision Zero.
«The European Vision Zero can represent a model for Calabria. We ask that institutions, social partners and the production system together make a precise commitment: to make the protection of life the first indicator of the quality of work and development of our region», concludes Senese.