(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 12 - A 69-year-old male worker died after being hit by a forklift in a paper mill in the province of Lucca on Tuesday, the latest in a spate of fatal workplace accidents in Italy that has spurred union and government action.
    According to initial reports, the victim was hit by the moving work vehicle, apparently during a reversing maneuver.
    Emergency services were sent to the scene, but there was nothing they could do.
    The State Police are investigating.
    National labour accidents and occupational illness agency INAIL said last week that 776 fatal work-related accidents were reported to it in the first nine months of 2024, a rise of 2% on the equivalent period in 2023.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni recently announced that the government has approved the recruitment of 1,600 new labour inspectors, amid the alarm about the spate of workplace deaths.
    Concern was heightened by the June death of Satnam Singh, an off-the-books 31-year-old Indian farm labourer who bled out after being dumped outside his hut with an arm severed by wrapping machinery placed beside him on a fruit picking box at Latina south of Rome.
    Five men died after inhaling toxic gas in a sewer network near Palermo in May, and seven died in a hydro power plant blast near Bologna in April.
    Meanwhile there has been a steady stream of more than daily individual deaths. (ANSA).