“It’s not an accident, it’s work violence”

MADRIDHe went to work, but did not return. This is the story of Robert, the son of Ana Corres. Two years ago, this 35-year-old from La Rioja died, along with his partner Jesús Maria, while working. The company where he was, Nidec Arisa, was engaged in the manufacture of presses for the automotive sector. “Our son told us that he improvised a lot and that he didn’t work responsibly,” Ana explains in a telephone conversation with ARA. Like Robert, two years ago 634 people died in accidents at work while working, according to the Ministry of Labor’s 2020 report on accidents at work in Spain. In 2021, the death toll rises to 575, according to data on work-related accidents anticipated a month ago by the ministry. However, if we add the deaths during the journey to work (130), the figure rises to 705 people who lost their lives at work, most of them employees. That is, two workers died every day.

The leading causes of fatal work accidents were heart attacks or natural problems, traffic accidents and, finally, blows, falls from high altitudes or being trapped in a machine while handling. In fact, the sectors in which the incidence was exponentially high are the construction and the agricultural sector. However, behind these causes lies the precariousness and poor training given to employees, as well as the few safety and occupational risk prevention mechanisms that companies sometimes have, says the president of the Union of Inspectors of Labor and Social Security, Ana Ercorera.

“It’s not regarding accidents, it’s regarding workplace violence; breaking the law and little institutional oversight,” says Robert’s mother, with the goal of changing the language used to explain such facts. Ana Corres recalls that her son “worked hard” and that “in one of the last conversations” they had with him he told them “he was afraid,” and reprimands that young people like him are, for the reasons detailed above, in unsafe work environments. “Security mechanisms to increase production are slowing down,” he says. According to the latest report Working conditions and Health of COOO and the UAB, 60% of the salaried population confirm that their mental health is at risk.

Few controls

The Labor Inspectorate points out that one way to avoid reaching these figures is to strengthen the labor authority with material and personal resources. Spain is one of the countries with the fewest labor inspectors per employee: one civil servant for every 15,000 workers. Specifically, there are 858 inspectors and 994 sub-inspectors who are in charge of controlling all possible irregularities that may be committed by companies and public administrations in labor matters. The International Labor Organization recommends that countries should have at least one inspector for every 10,000 workers, and in fact the European average is even one official for every 7,300 employees, according to union representitives. .

Prevention campaigns are added to the inspection by the Inspectorate. In fact, the Ministry of Labor has recently launched a shock plan to prevent accidents at work with more surveillance and control in sectors such as primary (agriculture and fisheries) and industrial (in the activity of collecting waste). Such measures, however, are not entirely sufficient for Ana Corres. “What really works is the sanctions. When there is a work accident, many companies the next day continue as if nothing, unpunished, working,” reprimands this mother.

However, accidents at work also grew last year. In 2021, there were 572,448 work-related accidents with sick leave, 17.9% more than the previous year, according to data provided by the Ministry of Labor. In addition, accidents at work on the road also increased, ie during the journey to work (31%). A fact that the unions relate to the return to normalcy following the hardest year of pandemic marked by the strictest confinements.

Visibility in the face of silence

If there is one thing Robert’s mother complains regarding, it is the lack of support, especially institutional support, she has received over the last two years. “You are trying to find out what happened [el dia de l’accident]but the company does not answer you and the legal process is perpetuated “, he explains, adding that he misses a” victim care office that offers information and staff, psychological support, in these cases “.” But not the We have “, he laments. For this reason, together with other relatives from La Rioja who have experienced similar situations, they have organized around the April 28 Platform – Stop Accidents at Work. The main goal of the group is to “support”, says Ana, and at the same time give visibility to all cases in the region. “When you know the data, you’re scared. It’s a lot of deaths,” he says.

Similar platforms have sprung up across the state this time around. This is the case of Avalto, a small Toledo association of victims of accidents at work, or Avaela, in Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha, which also aim to raise awareness of occupational accidents and “raise awareness regarding the structural nature of this phenomenon “.