A 68-year-old construction company owner died on Friday morning after falling more than seven metres at a building site in San Vitaliano, near Naples. It is the latest workplace accident resulting in a string of fatalities.

The victim, Vincenzo Bolero, a surveyor from Marigliano, was inspecting work at a site close to a gas station when he fell to his death.

His death is the latest in a series of fatal workplace accidents across Italy. On Wednesday, a 46-year-old Slovenian worker was run over by a truck and killed at the Acciaierie Venete steel plant in Borgo Valsugana, Trentino.

Those incidents follow five worker deaths last week, highlighting what unions and officials describe as a continuing national emergency.

Workplace fatalities remain a major problem in Italy. According to the INAIL insurance agency, 1,202 people died in work-related accidents in 2023, one more than in the previous year.

The government led by Premier Giorgia Meloni has said improving workplace health and safety is a top priority, while there is a workplace accident on average every 7 hours.

Earlier this week, President Sergio Mattarella urged authorities not to accept fatal accidents as inevitable. “Italy must never resign itself to workplace deaths,” he said in a message to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Working Conditions, ahead of the States General conference on Occupational Health and Safety.