A large number of immigrant workers, who lack the documents to legally reside in Italy, are particularly vulnerable. They are forced to work without insurance for employers who flaunt safety regulations. In the region of Lucca, an average of one worker has died every month since December of 1998. In the construction industry, workers labor near heavy machinery and electrical power sources under highly unsafe conditions. Blocks of cement and heavy pieces of metal are not properly secured.
Many workers have lockers in dangerous areas.
Workers suffer horrible deaths, including being crushed by heavy equipment or electrocuted. On June 8 in Messina, Sicily, two workers, Carlo Berardi and Alessandro Poggi, were electrocuted. Poggi died instantly while Berardi suffered second and third degree burns over 85 percent of his body. The number of fatal accidents recorded for the first five months of 2000 is 502, as compared to 472 for the same period in 1999. This is an increase of 6.3 percent.