On June 22nd at 5pm, a CGIL demonstration in Latina to remember Satnam Singh, a laborer from the Agro Pontino who died following injuries sustained in an accident at work. The confederation also launched a fundraiser to support the family. Next Tuesday there will be an event promoted by the Latina Indian community in memory of him. The Fai-Cisl and Uila-Uil immediately responded to next week’s demonstration by guaranteeing their participation.
A strike was also called for the entire day of June 25th, through which the unions declared their intention to denounce the irregularity and exploitation inherent in the agricultural sector. Far from being an isolated case, Satnam Singh’s death made visible the systemic nature of violence in irregular work and gangmastering, according to most unions. According to data from the National Labor Inspectorate relating to the 8,222 checks conducted in 2023 in Lazio, the phenomenon of gangmastering shows its merciless persistence in Italy, recording 608 cases out of 785 workers.
The inhumane death of the Indian laborer, which occurred after 36 hours of agony, following the mutilation of an arm that was not treated within the necessary time, falls precisely in the context of the rooting in Italy, and in the Lazio countryside, of gangmastering. After being sucked into a plastic wrapping machine, which he was using in the Latina farm where he worked illegally, Satnam Singh was in fact left by his employer in front of his home and not in the hospital, to avoid the risks that the discovery of his irregularity would have resulted. The owner of the company is being investigated for manslaughter for the episode. The Latina Police Commissioner today issued a residence permit for “special protection” reasons to the widow.
“These are inhumane acts that do not belong to the Italian people, and I hope that this barbarity will be harshly punished”, underlined yesterday the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The CGIL leader Maurizio Landini defined the incident as an “act of slavery”, denouncing the fact that “in entire parts of our economy, gangmastering and illegal work, which cause massacres at work, are the norm” . However, the Minister of Labor Marina Calderone reassures on the matter, who at the end of the discussion with the unions and employers’ associations on gangmastering this afternoon, declared that “everyone’s aim is to declare war on gangmastering and intensify actions to contrast of a system that mortifies work, puts human lives at risk and certainly does not allow a strategic sector such as agriculture to grow”.
Also present at the table with the minister was the head of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, according to whom “one of the things that emerged from the meeting is that in these situations something happens: the criminalization of one of the links in the supply chain. The death of a worker due to negligence of a criminal, agricultural businesses are criminalized.” During the meeting, we discussed increasing cross-checks between databases to encourage the emergence of undeclared work.