OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
(RIGHT OF ALL DUTY AND COMMON)
(article published in the December 2009 issue of the magazine "milkweed").
"And those who go 'with difficulty, while' 'adda affruntà to death, murimm' 'one' to a p'e guilt 'and' sti Padrun (E'Zezi," A 'Flaubert ", 1975).
a quiet war
Every day in Italy there are 2500 accidents at work, three workers are killed and 27 remain disabled forever (about a million accidents annually, with over 1000 dead).
And behind every number there is the history and the lives of men and women and their families.
For many workers, die or be scarred forever is a possibility which can occur at any time. As in war!
Then there are the occupational diseases caused by daily contact with toxic substances that kill slowly.
Some works are more like a trench at a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
construction sites, in particular, nearly 23% of accidents, even though this sector accounts for only 8, 4% of the workforce, and 1 / 6 of these incidents affecting migrant workers, which are usually assigned tasks more risky, with long shifts and little training in security matters.
The job insecurity negatively affects the security situations occur more often in where workers are inexperienced and not sufficiently prepared and used for very dangerous, with the result that the workers 'temporary' are 2-3 times more likely than stable.
On August 5, 2009, Official Gazette No 180 (ordinary supplement n.142), has been published, and therefore entered into force, the Legislative Decree No 106, August 3, 2009: supplementary provisions and remedies of the legislative decree 9 April 2008, n.81, for the protection of health and safety in the workplace (Consolidated safety in the workplace).
The Consolidated represented the implementation of Article 1 of Legislative Decree no. 123/2007 (the Government and 'delegated to adopt ..., one or more legislative decrees to reorganize and reform of existing legislation on health and safety of workers in the workplace, in accordance with Article 117 of the constitution ... guaranteeing the uniformity of the protection of workers nationwide through the observance of the basic level of benefits relating to civil and social rights, with respect to gender differences and the condition of women workers and migrant workers ...).
It was one of the first acts of the last Prodi government, and one of the first signed by President Napolitano, who had long called for, interpreting the expectations of all Italians, Unfortunately, even the emotional wave of the unstoppable chain of deaths and injuries at work.
After the entry into force of the Consolidated was desirable in a flurry of initiatives, the early adoption of decrees, the completion of the organizational system, a renewed collective commitment to the formation of a true culture of prevention.
Unfortunately, with the fall of the government, wanted by Mastella after the start of his legal problems, the process that had been so laboriously opened, it was again, he is guilty, hang (extensions, the failure to issue decrees, ...).
And now the recent measure of the Berlusconi government is a substantial counter- and a reversal of the "philosophy" of the Consolidated and its key content. A true entrepreneurs made (no more fines, no more blocking of illegal for companies that exploit illegal labor and do not meet safety standards, no more checks).
a quiet war
Every day in Italy there are 2500 accidents at work, three workers are killed and 27 remain disabled forever (about a million accidents annually, with over 1000 dead).
And behind every number there is the history and the lives of men and women and their families.
For many workers, die or be scarred forever is a possibility that can occur at any time. As in war!
Then there are the occupational diseases caused by daily contact with toxic substances that kill slowly.
Some works are more like a trench at a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
construction sites, in particular, nearly 23% of accidents, even though this sector accounts for only 8, 4% of the workforce, and 1 / 6 of these incidents affecting migrant workers, which are usually assigned tasks more risky, with long shifts and little training in security matters.
The job insecurity negatively affects the safety occur more often in situations where inexperienced workers are not sufficiently trained and are used for very dangerous work, with the result that the workers 'temporary' are 2-3 times more likely than stabili.Alcune of the most effective measures of the Consolidated wanted by Napolitano and Prodi have been eliminated or severely cut back right to compensation for victims of occupational accidents, review the system of penalties, criminal liability of the employer. The new provision introduces an exception to the general issue of criminal responsibility by omission (stated by art. 40 para 2 of the Criminal Code), so "do not prevent an event, which has a legal duty to prevent, equals to cause her. "
In general, it was decided by the Berlusconi government a significant lowering of the level of protection of workers, sometimes in conflict with EU rules, and in particular the Framework Directive 89/391/EC. Also introduced were excessive delegation by the violation of the rule laid down in Legislative Decree no. 123/07 of the prohibition on lowering the levels of protection, and often with changes in contrast with other parts of the Consolidated Text.
In particular, the responsibility of the employer or the manager in case of death or injuries have been reduced if the event is mainly attributable to a charge of manslaughter (designer, manufacturer, supplier, installer, medical worker ...), Ie the fact that any of the other actors in the production environment. In this way it was meaningless the obligation of vigilance on the part of the employer, in order for the proper performance by all the subjects of their duties.
But what is really serious and dangerous is the symbolic significance of these changes: in a legislature where the government's policy in criminal matters is all aimed at a general tightening of penalties (think immigration, traffic, harassment , etc..) safety at work is the area where it is considered rather than to change the downward load of penalties, with the result that justice becomes harder to hit the individual, often in situations of exclusion, and is soft, however, if there is a risk of hitting the interests of those in power, even when dealing with legal interests of primary importance, such as health, work, human dignity and life itself.
In fact, the changes introduced, it becomes more difficult to call to responsibility, in case of injury, employers, while workers are often the pains increased.
Also in this case is not much and only a matter of degree, because of the message you send, encouraging the belief that ultimately, in many cases the major responsibilities are the victims themselves or other workers as a whole. A message that, as always, goes hand in hand with that - just as harmful - on the "inevitability" of accidents. At a time when public opinion has been repeatedly struck by the severity of some particularly dramatic phenomena, and while we should aim, as required by all and again stressed also by the President of the Republic, and convinced the proper application of rules laboriously unified and defined with the Consolidated, we would need very different messages in favor of forming a real and widespread culture of prevention.
Figure 1: Work "safe"! It should not
be no mitigating factor for those who, aware of the hazards to a worker, while there are required by law, does not do anything because that risk is avoided or minimized.
But all that concerns the security is seen by employers as just an additional expense and, despite a legal framework that theoretically should give sufficient guarantees (from DD. Lgs.vi 626/94 and 494/96 to the TU D . Decree Law 81/2008), accidents are still a plague that seems inevitable, especially due to the lack of controls, and especially in small construction sites and in factories and handicraft workshops or family.
At reclamation asbestos a large office building in Naples, where I worked as project manager, the constant presence of the inspectors of the ASL, both at the outset that the executive, even with a more "advice from" that real control, and thus was perceived in a non-coercive, punitive, or simply, by the firm and workers, safety was the priority, and there was no injury, no release of asbestos fibers exceeding the recommended limits. Of course, even then, it was not possible to eliminate all risk, but as always should be, you did everything possible to protect the health of the employees and residents of the area, even if the working hours were longer those established by contract, but by the commission was never any pressure, nor on the company or organ of control, to increase the pace of work.
integrity and safety of a man, and the dignity of workers, should be more important than any rise in productivity or any contractual obligation.
Figure 2: completely under scaffolding, but with "horns" as superstitious garrison sicurezza.Troppo often, however, the safety of workers, especially where and when rights are denied and exploitation are the norm, is often sacrificed to the profit of employers.
In the name of profit, business, engineers and administrators with few scruples, bring in or tolerate acts of production systems that exploit natural resources and manpower, and without hesitation rules, introducing processes toxic chemicals and carcinogens, that poison is the employees that the final product.
And, in this situation, aggravated by the growing moral decay of our society, fueled by the degradation of our environment, it appears that normal accidents at work, there is less and less outraged, and we are becoming more accustomed to think of them as an inevitable "side effect".
So, working people continue to die as we die to the degradation of health facilities public in favor of private ones, which reduce costs to maximize profits, they are often even worse than public ones, while tax evasion and social security contributions continues to divert resources to the community.
Meanwhile, the media, television in the lead, continue to spread news distressing and commercials increasingly sophisticated and "aggressive", building on the one hand fear, insecurity, uncertainty and distrust, which serve to justify increasingly repressive and intrusive policies, and other needs and market demand to support economic growth and increase corporate profits.
But today there is a clear feeling that the myth market that regulates itself, and economic growth are falling along with the many companies that are failing, and in fact Italy is still, from an economic standpoint, but it is said that this is not a bad thing and, instead, a ' opportunities.
And 'in fact desirable that you give up the idea of \u200b\u200bunlimited growth and it will start the construction of a more sober, without renouncing to the welfare, eliminate waste, resize consumption, resource recovery, renewable energy and spur change the production system, so it is more respectful of the health and safety of workers and consumers, as well as the environment.
E ', this, the "Decrease happy" and "transition" they are talking about long Latouche and many others. It's not just economics.
If we want to save the country from bankruptcy, and the world from catastrophe (the current rate of growth and attrition of resources, and expedite the production and consumption of goods not needed, are undermining the future of the planet), it is necessary a cultural revolution.
shaking us from passive resignation and delivering us from selfish opportunism, we must abandon the myth of unlimited growth, and reject the idea that the personal enrichment may be an end justifying any means and wickedness. We must remove the centrality
economy and the market, and return it to the man: the only way to achieve a more equitable distribution of resources, and also we will also have factories and construction sites safer, less accidents and deaths, but also less dangerous products for consumers.
Figure 3: United States - suspended working lunch!
appropriate investments in research, technology and training to be granted only to firms fair and respectful of the rules, they must replace the funding to rain, and it is essential to improve the effectiveness of the control of public institutions. And 'this is the prerequisite for the survival of businesses, which should compete in the market focusing on innovation and not on the insecurity and frustration of the commitment of workers, because that then leads to fatigue and decreasing levels of attention, encouraging accidents in the workplace (data have been published recently on the alarming spread of dangerous drugs in the workplace, often used and tolerated, to withstand the terrible pace of work now required in some factories or construction sites).
artisans and entrepreneurs need to acquire awareness of the environmental, economic and social requirements of all their activities, must become fully responsible for the health and safety of their providers of work, and be conscious of playing a role of collective interest, and not just a ' activities aimed at profit.
Economic development must not ignore respect for the environment and integrity, physical and moral, of the human person, whose defense must condition any administrative and legislative decision, but the choices and actions of entrepreneurs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment