A worker crushed by a handling vehicle, a manager of a sawmill victim of cardiac arrest, a driver who died in a road accident, a farmer crushed by a construction machine… Since the beginning of the year, Matthieu Lépine (1), a history professor who has been listing fatal work accidents on Twitter and on his blog for several years, counted 41.
To highlight a scourge that is too often invisible, a group of relatives of victims is organizing a rally on Saturday March 4. The latter is scheduled for 2 p.m., place d’Ajaccio, in Paris. A delegation of 18 members of the collective will then be received by members of the cabinet of the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt.
On the subject, France is a bad student in Europe, with 3.5 fatal accidents per 100,000 people in 2019, against 1.7 on average in the European Union, according to Eurostat data. In April 2022, the European Trade Union Confederation warned of the increase in the number of fatal work accidents in France. If the 2010-2019 trend were to continue, nearly 8,000 additional deaths would be to be deplored by 2030.
No official figures
It is difficult to obtain clear figures on the number of fatal work accidents in France. According to Medicare documents, 645 people died in 2021. The figure, which had fallen to 550 in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has risen. In 2019, 733 fatal work accidents were counted, i.e. nearly three per working day, according to health insurance, and 790 according to the statistical service of the Ministry of Labor (Dares) which takes into account more employees.
Because, as Matthieu Lépine points out in The cross, “there is no count that brings together all the workers in the country”which leads to a “confusion around numbers”. In 2019, for example, health insurance is based on 19 million assets (compared to 30 million on average). The civil service, the self-employed, posted workers and undocumented workers are not taken into account. “This contributes to invisibilization since we are told figures that are undervalued”, complains the history teacher.
Simplified legal procedures
Construction workers, the agricultural world, transport are the most affected professional classes. “We are also going to find sectors that we talk about less: logging, fishing”, adds Matthieu Lépine. Overall, precarious work, particularly temporary work, is overrepresented. Finally, of the more than 730 deaths in 2019, more than half are aged 50 and over.
How to avoid other tragedies? For the teacher, “In particular, we must go back to the rules that have been unraveled, such as the reduction in the workforce of the labor inspectorate or the abolition of the health, safety and working conditions committees (CHSCT)”.
The group of relatives of victims calls for legal procedures to be simplified and accelerated, exemplary convictions and more preventive measures. The objective is also to make companies responsible, with, for example, preventive administrative closures in the event of a fatal accident. Claims that will be made to the Ministry of Labor on Saturday March 4.