A 69-year-old male worker died after
being hit by a forklift in a paper mill in the province of Lucca
on Tuesday, the latest in a spate of fatal workplace accidents
in Italy that has spurred union and government action.
According to initial reports, the victim was hit by the moving
work vehicle, apparently during a reversing maneuver.
Emergency services were sent to the scene, but there was nothing
they could do.
The State Police are investigating.
National labour accidents and occupational illness agency INAIL
said last week that 776 fatal work-related accidents were
reported to it in the first nine
months of 2024, a rise of 2% on the equivalent period in 2023.
Premier Giorgia Meloni recently announced that the government
has approved the recruitment of 1,600 new labour inspectors,
amid the alarm about the spate of workplace deaths.
Concern was heightened by the June death of Satnam Singh, an
off-the-books 31-year-old Indian farm labourer who bled out
after being dumped outside his hut with an arm severed by
wrapping
machinery placed beside him on a fruit picking box at Latina
south of Rome.
Five men died after inhaling toxic gas in a sewer network near
Palermo in May, and seven died in a hydro power plant blast near
Bologna in April.
Meanwhile there has been a steady stream of more than daily
individual deaths.
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