Workplace accidents on the rise in Sardinia . According to the latest annual report from the Vega Engineering Occupational Safety and Environment Observatory, updated to 31 December 2024, the island recorded an incidence of 46.8 fatal accidents per million employed people, a figure that is significantly higher than in 2023 (31.2) and much higher than the national average, which is 34.1 accidents per million employed people .
This is a "worrying" trend according to the Cisl Sardegna, which places the island in the so-called "red zone" of regions with the highest accident risk, together with Basilicata, Valle d'Aosta, Umbria, Trentino, Campania and Sicily .
«An alarm bell that we can no longer ignore», because «every death at work is a collective defeat», comments the general secretary of the Sardinian CISL Pier Luigi Ledda .
"The increase over the last year," Ledda emphasizes, "marks a 50% increase compared to 2023, placing Sardinia among the highest-risk areas in the country. This figure is unfortunately also confirmed by the findings from the first half of 2025 , which continue to record very high levels of workplace mortality."
Hence the call to relaunch the Buggerru Pact, "which must not remain merely a symbolic document" and must be "immediately implemented ." "The next budget law," Ledda urges, "must allocate adequate resources to strengthen the training of workers and employers, increase inspections in high-risk sectors such as construction, transport, and agriculture, support innovation and digitalization programs for safety, and ensure greater protection for the most vulnerable workers, from those over 65 to young new hires, and even foreigners. Safety is not a cost: it is an investment in the future of Sardinia."
The Buggerru Pact is a memorandum of understanding for the protection of employment and for health and safety in the workplace in Sardinia . It was signed by the Region, CGIL, CISL, and UIL on a symbolic date and place: the 120th anniversary of the Buggerru massacre, which occurred on September 4, 1904, when a massacre of workers led, a few days later, to Italy's first general strike. And the unions criticized the Region when, in the latest budget adjustment, resources were not allocated to implement the pact .
(Unioneonline/L)
