Deaths at work, deaths slightly decreasing. The Inail "treasure" is rising: the data

In 2025, workplace deaths in Italy will decrease slightly, but reports of accidents and occupational diseases will increase. It is a chiaroscuro photograph taken from the annual report of the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Inail) illustrated yesterday in the Chamber, in the presence among others of the Minister of Labor Marina Calderone. The theme was at the center of the September 22nd episode of Numeri, an in-depth analysis by Sky TG24.

Compared to 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic which then blew up the schemes, in 2025 workplace deaths dropped from 1,237 to 1,189, a drop of 4%. Data that confirms that the path towards improving security is still long.

Even more significant is the comparison relating to deaths at work, excluding deaths that occurred on the way to and from home. Inail calculates that since 2019 the number of people who lose their lives each year while in the workplace has gone from 902 to 890, a contraction of just 1.3 percentage points.

Regarding the comparison between genders, last year 93.9% of the victims were male workers while the remaining 6.1% were women. From transport to construction to warehousing and agriculture: the sectors where "white deaths" are concentrated are those where employment is mainly male.

With the progressive increase in deaths at work, Inail deposits at the State Treasury are also growing. It is the same institute that calculates that in 24 years the "treasure" has risen from 3.4 billion in 2001 to 47.2 billion in 2025, a higher figure than what would serve as the Institute's "technical reserve" to safeguard operations against accidents and illnesses.

Against this "treasure", INAIL spends smaller amounts on resources to encourage safety at work. In 2025, approximately 900 million have been reserved, 600 of which have been assigned to companies for prevention activities. Among the initiatives, the discounts for virtuous businesses and artisans stand out, for which the institute spent 240 million, and the 50 million allocated to training.

As the Inail supervisory board highlights, funds to companies for prevention activities against accidents at work are not always paid. In the period 2010-2014, bureaucracy and delays blocked 56% of payments compared to 44% of the allocated resources actually received.