Editor's note: We report the French investigation that can be transferred to Italy and in particular to those ISFs subjected daily to unbearable psychological pressures, exploitation and humiliations exacerbated by illegal contracts of fake VAT numbers where the stress and fear of losing even that underpaid job can annihilate even the strongest personalities. The law says that the employer is responsible for the mental and social health of its employees
France, if work leads to suicide
The results of a survey published in the Transalpine Public Health Epidemiological Bulletin. The most important factor is the fear of losing a job, followed by verbal threats, humiliation and intimidation
In 2017, in France, 3.8 percent of working people said they had thought about taking their own lives over the previous 12 months. This is revealed by the results of a survey published in the French Public Health Epidemiological Bulletin, which makes it possible to measure the impact of the conditions 
work on the intention to commit suicide, declared by 4.5 percent of women and 3.1 percent of men interviewed in the study. In more than a third of these cases, working conditions are cited as a reason for thinking of taking one's life. The most important factor is the fear of losing a job, followed by verbal threats, humiliations and intimidation at work.
These data were collected through interviews with more than 14,000 people between 18 and 75 years of age.. Suicidal intentions are more frequent among self-employed workers (4,32%) than among employees (2,85%). Among women, female workers are more numerous (5.13 %) than female employees (4.84%), while the percentage drops to 3.91 for those with managerial qualifications. As for men, the highest percentage includes artisans, traders and business managers (3.6%), followed by farmers (3.49%) and workers (3.01%). The lowest frequency belongs to cadres (2.62%). From the point of view of the sector, the hotel and restaurant sector are in the lead, with 6.8%, followed by the artistic and entertainment professions, teaching, health and social assistance. The correlation with social position is evident: employees who earn less than 1,500 euros a month are exposed to suicidal intentions almost twice as much as those with a higher income.
From news reports we learn that suicide intentions are sometimes resolved in concrete acts. On 22 April last the newspaper Le Mondepublished on the front page an article on the emergency of suicides in the police, where there have been 28 cases since the beginning of the year. These data indicate a considerable aggravation of the situation. According to researcher Sébastien Roché, of the National Center for Scientific Research, the authorities are not conducting systematic investigations into the causes of the phenomenon, because "there is no will to understand," he said. One hypothesis could be the growth of social tensions, the face to face with the population by the police and its role in the repression of the yellow vest movement.
For its part, last April, the trade union Solidaires launched a campaign with the aim of drawing a geographical map of suicides caused by work, built through the complaints of activists and workers (https://vimeo.com/330227580).
The employer is responsible for the mental and social health of its employees
The employer is responsible for the mental and social health of its employees and must adapt its competence, increasing its knowledge on the subject, in the light of the new "judicial asset to be protected".
The Legislative Decree 9 April 2008, n. 81, to the Art. 2, c. 1, lit. b) : "employer":
- the person in charge of the employment relationship with the worker or, in any case, the person who, according to the type and structure of the organization in which the worker carries out his activity, has responsibility for the organization itself or for the production unit in that it exercises decision-making and spending powers…; and among the novelties, that of a specific definition of "health" (art. 2, c. 1, letter o), to which the employer will have to pay particular interest since, from now on, it is to be understood as a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".
Stress and work-related illnesses, Apostoli (Simlii): prevention and tracing back to the causes
"The promotion of well-being in the workplace is also economically relevant, those who are well work better and produce more": what the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene (Simlii) has always supported is now also confirmed by the Organization world of health. In its latest report, WHO calculates that work-related health problems are responsible for an economic loss equal to 4-6% of GDP in many countries and that targeted initiatives can help reduce sickness absence by 27% and 26% health care costs for companies.
«These percentages should be taken with a little attention – comments President Simlii Peter Apostles – because planetary bodies like the WHO have to mediate very different situations, but it is undoubtedly a real phenomenon. Furthermore, in many countries, including Italy, non-work related illnesses are establishing themselves as the main problem: the difficulty of finding a job is causing social unease and a measurable higher incidence of illnesses, even of a certain importance».
For those who have a job, reports the WHO, the worst conditions are associated with an increase in cardiovascular pathologies and depression caused by stress, with absences and long-term illnesses. "We must avoid the mistake - warns Apostoli - of reducing the phenomenon to an individual matter, as if it were only an individual's inability to adapt or react, instead we must attack the primary causes, which concern the ways in which it is organised, or disorganized, work".
Anyone who is not sensitive to issues of social justice should in any case reflect on the economic consequences of failing to prevent: «not to prevent costs - says Apostoli - and we should be careful not to limit ourselves to the evaluation of direct medical costs, albeit very significant. When poor working conditions produce a sick or disabled person, the damage does not affect the company so much as the community that has to take care of it as well as, obviously, the individual himself».
Renato Torlaschi
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