The labor inspectorate recorded 213 accidents at work caused by a fall from a height, including 23 fatalities in the first half of 2022, a figure which is not decreasing despite prevention campaigns, according to a report on Tuesday from the General Directorate of Labor (DGT ).
In 2021, 421 workplace accidents caused by falling from a height were reported, including 46 fatalities and 249 resulting in serious injuries.
On average, over the past three years, France has recorded 674 work-related deaths per year.
The main causes are road accidents, accidents due to work equipment or dangerous machinery, falls from heights (26% of work accidents and 18% of fatal accidents).
We observe a level, as during a press conference, the general director of labor Pierre Ramain with a number of accidents and their frequency index which do not fall any more.
No less than 3,647 decisions to stop work linked to a risk of falling from a height were notified in 2021 by the labor inspectorate, which carried out 31,520 interventions on this subject, the second reason behind the fight against illegal work.
After a year 2020 which had seen the labor inspectorate reduce its interventions due to Covid and concentrate them on the control of the health protocol in companies and partial activity fraud, 2021 saw a return to a classic level of activity according to Mr Ramain.
The labor inspectorate has however added the fight against abusive recourse to short contracts of less than one month to its priorities, with 4,800 interventions between October 2021 and June 2022.
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There were initiatives, but the idea was to work collectively and in a visible way, explained Mr. Ramain. The sectors affected by the introduction of a bonus-malus during the unemployment insurance reform were targeted.
Overall in 2021, 68% of enforcement officer interventions took place in companies with fewer than 50 employees, mainly in construction (27%), industry (13%) and commerce (12%).
In total, 2,160 sanction decisions were taken in 2021 and 11.2 million euros in fines were collected.