A tower collapses in Italy, yet another worker dies on the job.

"In a healthy country, Octav, at 66, would not have found himself on a construction site performing arduous, difficult and dangerous tasks to earn a living. All this must change," wrote Nicole di Cola, a member of the secretariat of the Cgil - Italy's main trade union - for Rome and its region, on Facebook the day after the accident.

Not only because this "public project", financed by European funds, he added, concerns a historical monument, "where high standards should have been respected, but also because, while the eyes of Italy and the world were fixed on the Imperial Forums, four other people died at work in a single day".

From January to September 2025, 575 people, mostly men, died at work in Italy, according to the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL). That's about two workers per day, figures slightly higher than the EU average.

A number deemed "unacceptable" by Pierpaolo Bombardieri, general secretary of the UIL union. Those most affected are the construction, manufacturing, transport and logistics sectors.

On Monday, while working on the renovation site of the "Torre dei Conti", near the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums, Octav Stroici found himself trapped under the rubble of the building, which partially collapsed twice.

The man died shortly after being rescued by firefighters. When questioned by AFP, one of his colleagues present at the time of the tragedy repeated three times that the construction site "was not safe."

On the same day, four men, aged 31 to 63, died as a result of work accidents from Sardinia to Lombardy via Piedmont and Campania.

No security system

This new series of accidents comes just days after the ultraconservative government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni adopted a decree-law establishing "urgent measures" for workplace safety.

These include: an electronic badge for all workers on construction sites, including subcontractors, the recruitment of new inspectors and carabinieri to strengthen controls, and financial bonuses for companies with the fewest workplace accidents.

This decree-law will have "no overall impact on the economic model responsible for repeated disasters, based on precarious employment, cascading subcontracting, non-compliance with national collective agreements and the compression of costs and rights," lamented the confederal secretary of the Cgil, Francesca Re David.

When his right arm was crushed in an aluminum melting press in February 2022, Antonino Ferrara had only been working at the factory in northern Italy for a few weeks, without having received any prior training.

"I had the interview, they showed me the machines and told me, 'See you tomorrow,'" he told AFP by telephone. "I imagine I made a mistake," he said, explaining his accident, even though "the investigation revealed the absence of all safety systems." He also hadn't been given appropriate protective clothing.

For both the Cgil and the UIL, one of the main problems stems from subcontracting, whereby companies "save on the cost of labor, safety, and training," Fabrizio Potetti, a member of the Cgil secretariat for Rome and its region, explained to AFP.

"There is still so much to be done," insisted Ivana Veronese, Confederal Secretary of the UIL. "Workers' lives must be respected and protected to reach the only tolerable figure: zero deaths at work."