2023-09-27 12:00:02
En Europe, France is one of the countries where the most people die at work, with 3.32 fatal accidents per 100,000 working people (Eurostat data). Two deaths per day, more than 600,000 work accidents per year. The observation is terrible.
But behind these numbers, there are lives lost or injured forever. There are also the broken lives of families often left alone to face investigations, justice, institutions.
The mobilizations of April 28, World Day for Safety and Health at Work, made it possible to raise awareness and inform, still timidly, about this “invisible massacre” of workplace accidents. With the employee union organizations, we are participating with all our strength.
But we must do more and faster. We defend the urgency of affirming and implementing a “zero deaths at work” policy.
A communications operation
The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt announced for the end of September “a major awareness campaign” on work accidents via spots visible on different media (television, radio, posters, social networks). No one can find fault with it. But it would be wrong to believe that a communication operation will provide, on the ground, a sufficient and lasting response to the fight against workplace accidents if it is not accompanied by emergency measures and a long-term plan.
Firstly, emergency measures, by giving families from the start of the procedures information and the right of access to the elements of the investigation and by fully compensating accident victims and their beneficiaries. We must also (re)construct criminal labor law, currently the poor relation of the courts, by strongly penalizing non-compliance with the prevention principles of the labor code, by not hesitating to say that an employer who does not respect labor laws is a “delinquent”, or even worse.
The health, safety and working conditions committees (CHSCT) must be restored in companies, which were abolished by the “Macron orders” of 2017, and which are so lacking in the fight against workplace accidents.
Finally, we must strengthen the prerogatives of labor inspectors by extending (to situations of serious and imminent danger, exposure to high heat, etc.) the scope of work cessation measures allowing an employee to be removed from work. a dangerous situation, as exists in the event of a risk of falling from a height in the construction industry.
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