Hypotheses and analysis on the collapse at the Esselunga construction site in Florence
Installation error, manufacturing defect or design error? The investigation opened by magistrates into the collapse on the construction site of an Esselunga supermarket in Florence revolves around these three hypotheses. The point of Mario Sassi, author of the Blog-Notes on work
THE COLLAPSE IN THE ESSELUNGA CONSTRUCTION SITE IN FLORENCE
The dramatic fact is that it can happen anywhere and to anyone. There is no point in simply pointing the finger at the latest misfortune in chronological order. In this specific case, we first need to understand what happened.
THE JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION
Prosecutors Francesco Sottosanti and Alessandra Falcone have opened a case in which the crimes of multiple manslaughter and negligent collapse are hypothesized. The first step will be to clarify the causes of the collapse and thus determine the criminal responsibilities for what happened. According to the “ Corriere Fiorentino ” at least thirty subcontracted companies worked on the supermarket construction site.
THE SECURITIES OF THE CGIL
For the general secretary of Fillea Cgil Florence, it is unlikely that the beam was assembled badly and it is indeed presumable that it was the same component that was poorly made, perhaps poorly designed or made of poor quality materials. “If that were the case, the accident would not be linked to a lack of safety on the construction site.”
THE WORDS OF CAPROTTI (ESSELUNGA)
Marina Caprott i, president of Esselunga declared: “We express deep condolences and closeness to the families of the victims of the very serious accident on the construction site in via Mariti in Florence. We are shocked by what happened. The site under construction was contracted out to a third-party company and we are available to the authorities to help clarify the dynamics of what happened and for any need."
THE HYPOTHESES ON THE COLLAPSE IN THE ESSELUNGA CONSTRUCTION SITE IN FLORENCE
So, before judging, we need to understand. Installation error, manufacturing defect or design error? The investigation opened by the magistrates revolves around these three hypotheses. To these hypotheses will inevitably be added the analysis of the complex procurement and subcontracting chain. It will be necessary to understand whether or not the workers involved had a professional classification equivalent to their job on the construction site.
WHO WAS WORKING ON THE CONSTRUCTION SITE
According to what has emerged, the client company and the contractor of the collapse on the Esselunga construction site in Florence are the same as the construction site of another Esselunga supermarket in Genoa, in the San Benigno area where, on 10 February 2023, three workers remained injured due to the collapse of a car park ramp: Villata spa, the real estate company 100% owned by Esselunga, and Aep, a construction activity from Pavia, based in Pieve del Cairo (Pavia)”.
THE ROLE OF ESSELUNGA
Esselunga is a fundamental part of a complex and articulated reality. Defining it as "just" an important large-scale retail trade company is an understatement. It processes products like any other food company, is present in the HORECA sector, owns beauty boutiques, sells wines online and manages construction activities with considerable real estate. Managing all this in terms of responsibility and knowledge of the problems that arise from it and the direct and indirect implications is not at all simple.
LANDINI'S CONCLUSIONS ON THE COLLAPSE IN THE ESSELUNGA CONSTRUCTION SITE IN FLORENCE
Landini, for his part, has already "closed" the investigation (which, on the contrary, will be long and complex) and points the finger at the new procurement code which introduced the elimination of the ban on cascade subcontracting. I agree that this is a problem that needs serious investigation. "Whoever wins a tender must be responsible for the entire supply chain, same rules for public and private" concluded the secretary of the CGIL.
THE TRADE UNIONS-GOVERNMENT COMPARISON
It will be a topic of political discussion in the Government and between the majority and the opposition. According to the construction trade unions, subcontracted workers represent 70% of the total deaths at work. An impressive figure. The practice of subcontracting and maximum discounts, in addition to saving on costs, removes responsibility for accidents as there is an almost certainty that the checks currently carried out by ten different bodies would hardly be resolved.
ANALYZES
For those who experience the events of commerce and large-scale retail trade with passion and participation like myself, what happened in Florence, on the construction site where a new store was being built, remains an extremely painful fact. For this reason I agree with what was written by the lawyer Giampiero Falasca in the Sole 24 ore “It cannot be thought that labor inspectors are able to control every company and every construction site; the collaboration of all actors is needed to expel from the production system those who use workplace safety as a lever to reduce costs".
THE COMMERCE SECTOR
If we want to get to the bottom of it, this is where we need to start. The trade sector in Italy employs 3.4 million people distributed across just over one million active companies. Accidents in the sector are relatively low. On a general level throughout the world of work, in 2023, accident reports presented to Inail were 585,356, down by 16.1% compared to the 697,773 in 2022 according to the periodical Dati Inail, edited by the Institute's actuarial statistical consultancy, which analyzes the provisional numbers of occupational diseases and injuries reported in 2023, recorded as of last December 31st.
THE NUMBERS
The first data for 2023 highlight that the 16.1% drop in injury reports is the synthesis of -19.2% of cases that occurred at work, which went from 607,806 in 2022 to 491,165 in 2023, and of +4, 7% of those occurred while commuting, on the way to and from the workplace, from 89,967 to 94,191. The deaths reported are still more than a thousand. Compared to the previous year, from 1,090 to 1,041. Net of deaths from Covid-19, which had already almost disappeared in 2022, the reduction in fatal accidents still remains high, just over 4%. “Only the deaths that occurred while commuting decreased, from 300 in 2022 to 242 in 2023, while those at work were nine more, from 790 to 799. 91.7% of fatal cases concern men, with a decline of 1.5% compared to 2022, and almost half of the deaths fall within the 50 to 64 age group.
INJURIES
Thirty-six victims in 15 "multiple" fatal accidents. "Multiple" fatal accidents, in which two or more workers lost their lives, were 15 in 2023 for a total of 36 victims, 22 of which involved a means of transport. In 2022, 19 multiple accidents were reported for a total of 46 deaths, of which 44 were road deaths." In the first six months of the last four-year period, 2,021 workplace victims were recorded in Italy: 570 fatal accidents in 2020, 538 in 2021, 463 in 2022 and 450 in 2023. As regards the most affected work sectors, in 2020 they were Manufacturing, Transport and Warehousing and Health and Social Assistance recorded the highest number of deaths, that of Healthcare, clearly connected to the year of onset of the health emergency; in 2021, Construction, Manufacturing and Transport and Warehousing are the sectors with the most victims.
ATTORNEY FALASCA'S COMMENT
While in 2022 and 2023 the top three sectors with the most deaths were Transport and Warehousing, Construction and Manufacturing. For this reason, worrying about safety does not mean limiting ourselves to considering the formal requirements required by law. Falasca is right: “There are too many workplaces where safety is seen as an optional, a nuisance that slows down daily operations; an approach that leads to considering accidents as fatalities which, however, could be avoided with good prevention". And he concludes: “The situation changes if production decentralization is used to evade regulatory standards: business chains without real entrepreneurial consistency, the use of irregular labour, little investment in training and structures considerably increase the risks for security". Unfortunately, faced with tragedies that repeat themselves with impressive frequency, we always find ourselves asking the same questions. This is no longer acceptable.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cantiere-firenze-lavoro/ on Sun, 18 Feb 2024 08:14:20 +0000.