“France’s Alarming Workplace Fatality and Injury Rates: Urgent Action Needed on World Day for Health and Safety at Work”

April 28, 2023: World Day for Health and Safety at Work

Since January 1, 2023, 84 people have died at work. In 2019, 1,274 people, aged between 14 and 70, lost their lives.

We are thinking of the relatives of the victims, of the colleagues who have suddenly lost a member of their team and who are rightly worried about their working conditions.

While the European average is 1.7 fatal work accidents per 100,000 working people, France accounts for twice as much with an average of 3.5. Our country occupies the sinister 1st place of non-fatal accident rates on a European scale (3,425 per 100,000 working people in France against 1,603 in Europe).

This alarming situation is the result of a labor market deregulation This liberalization has thus allowed the uberization of certain professions subject to algorithms and not benefiting from any social protection, the precariousness of front-line workers with low wages and difficult working conditions or the exhaustion of executives, close to the burnout. The insufficient regulation of the world of work is also illustrated through certain companies in the construction sector and the example of the 2024 Olympic Games, multiplying subcontracting and sometimes employing undocumented workers (and therefore without rights) or else this refusal to legislate decisively against the agro-chemical industry causing many deaths each year in the peasant world. Finally, the state prefers to guarantee the profits of companies rather than the safety of workers.

While, since the start of Emmanuel Macron’s new five-year term, the urgency for the Government has been to extend working hours to 64, a new Labor law is looming, preferring to attack RSA beneficiaries rather than to occupational health and safety issues.

The conclusion is there: today, the state is not able to guarantee a safe and healthy environment as a fundamental principle and right in companies. Nor is it capable of supporting or compelling employers to ensure good working conditions for their employees.

On the occasion of this World Day for Health and Safety at Work, EELV recalls the absolute necessity of:

• Withdraw the pension reform and reduce working time
• Integrate climate change into national occupational health strategies as suggested by a recent opinion from the CESSATION
• Support the creation of a representative body dedicated to occupational health in companies
• Reinforce the resources of the Labor Inspectorate, the Carsat as well as the occupational medicine and increase the penalties in the event of breaches by companies
• Sanctuarize the 2 billion euros of accumulated surpluses from the accident at work and occupational disease branch to help companies make work sustainable
• Increase work accident and occupational disease contributions for companies with a high rate of work accidents and modulate these contributions with the adoption of a well-being plan in the company
• Reopen negotiations with the social partners to restore/consolidate the personal hardship prevention account
• Have burnout recognized as an occupational disease and generalize the automatic right to disconnect

Aminata Niakaté and Sophie Bussière, national spokespersons
The Economy, Social and Public Services Commission of EELV