On the eve of Labour Day, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced over €1.2 billion in funding to improve workplace safety in Italy. The country continues to grapple with a rising number of fatal accidents on the job.
The new measures, presented after a cabinet meeting on the eve of the May Day holiday, include €650 million in additional resources alongside €600 million already allocated by INAIL, the national workplace insurance agency. The announcement came less than a day after yet another worker lost his life on a construction site.
35-year old construction worker dies in Soresina
A 35-year-old construction worker died on Tuesday in Soresina, in the province of Cremona, becoming the second fatality in as many days and the latest victim in Italy’s alarming trend of workplace deaths.
According to early reports, the man, an Egyptian national residing in the province of Brescia, was operating a Bobcat construction vehicle when he was fatally struck by its mechanical arm. Investigators believe he may have triggered the machine while reaching into the cabin, causing the bucket to hook onto him and descend uncontrollably. He died instantly.
The Carabinieri of Soresina and Cremona, along with inspectors from the ATS Val Padana, are examining the circumstances of the incident.
Just a day earlier, a 59-year-old man died when his dumper truck crushed him after it fell into a ravine at a marble quarry in Massa Carrara, Tuscany. Both deaths occurred as the country prepared to mark Labour Day.
Mattarella: “Intolerable indifference”
President Sergio Mattarella addressed the rising death toll on Tuesday, calling workplace deaths a “plague” that continues to devastate families and communities.
“The plague of workplace deaths shows no signs of stopping and has already claimed hundreds of lives in our country in these first months,” said Mattarella. “Neither indifference nor resignation are tolerable. It is clear the commitment to safety at work needs to be strengthened.”
In his Labour Day speech of 2022, Mattarella said the goal was zero workplace deaths. Sadly, the result couldn’t be further from that.
He praised the country’s three main trade unions – CGIL, CISL, and UIL – for making workplace safety the central theme of this year’s Labour Day demonstrations.
€1.2billion for safety measures
In a cabinet meeting held on the eve of May Day, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a new package of workplace safety measures, including €650 million in fresh funding. Combined with €600 million already earmarked by INAIL, Italy’s workplace accident and illness insurance agency, the total funding for improving safety now exceeds €1.2 billion.
“Today we are dedicating Labour Day to this issue, and we are committed to doing even more,” said Meloni in a video message. “We want to strengthen the system of incentives and disincentives for companies based clearly on their conduct with regard to safety, with particular attention to the agricultural world.”
European Affairs Minister Tommaso Foti confirmed that the government will meet with trade unions on 8 May to discuss concrete steps forward.
A persistent crisis
Unions reported on Monday that 138 people died in workplace accidents in the first two months of 2025 alone. That is a 16% increase over the same period last year.
Daniela Fumarola, leader of the CISL trade union, called for workplace safety to be the “first commandment” of a new national labour pact. “It must involve businesses, unions, and public institutions,” she said.
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