Huge fall in labour inspections raises Covid risk

The number of labour inspections has collapsed across Europe over the last decade, leaving workplaces less prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic.



New ETUC research reveals that safety inspections have been cut by a fifth since 2010, falling from 2.2 million annual visits to 1.7 million.



Inspections have become rarer in at least 17 countries, including in Germany where 232,000 fewer visits were made in 2018 compared to 2010 and Portugal where checks were cut in half over the same period.



That coincided with the loss of over 1,000 labour inspectors available to visit workplaces across the EU. More than a third of European countries no longer meet the ILO’s standard of having one labour inspector per 10,000 workers.



Biggest cuts in the number of labour inspections since 2010:



Portugal: -55%

Malta: -55%

Cyprus: -38%

Romania: -37%

Croatia: -35%



EU: - 18%



Biggest cuts in the number of labour inspectors since 2010:



Romania: -45%

UK: -32%

Portugal: -21%

Ireland: -17%

Estonia: -14%



EU: -7%



The ETUC’s analysis of ILO data for 22 countries (in full below) comes on international workers memorial day, when trade unions remember those who have died at work over the past year.



Many of the over 1 million victims of Covid-19 in Europe contracted the disease at work, more than 100,000 people still die every year from work-related cancer and the number of fatal workplace accidents has increased.



The major cut in labour inspections over the last decade left workplaces less prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic and will have hit the most vulnerable workers like women, young people and migrants the hardest, while the lower number of inspectors will make a safe return to work more difficult.



The ETUC is calling for Covid-19 to be recognised as an occupational disease, for full enforcement of workplace health and safety rules through more and tougher labour inspections, and better protection and resources for the inspectors carrying them out.



ETUC Deputy General Secretary Per Hilmersson said:



“It is a scandal that the number of workplace safety checks were at their lowest in a decade when Covid-19 struck. Labour inspections have been slashed across Europe as a result of austerity and that undoubtedly left workplaces less prepared for the pandemic and may have cost many lives.



“It’s time Europe stopped treating life so cheaply and put peoples’ safety first. All countries need to dramatically increase their number of labour inspectors to facilitate a safe return to work after the pandemic, as well as dealing with the unacceptably high number of fatal accidents and work-related cancer.



“It is staggering therefor that the European Commission has chosen the week of international workers memorial day to launch a one-in, one-out deregulation policy that could impede important health and safety regulation. The Commission should know ‘red tape’ is always preferable to red bandages.”



Notes:

 

ETUC workers memorial day statement: health and safety is your right 

ETUC briefing on violations of occupational health & safety regulations during the Covid crisis: 



ILO data on labour inspections



ILO data on labour inspectors

Full table: